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Whist Sketches. 



REVIEW AND SKETCHES 



-OF THE- 



First American Whist Congress, 
Held in Milwaukee, April, 1891. 



Personal of distinguished players. 

Biographies of "Cavendish " and Trist. 

Reminiscences of James Clay, etc., etc. 



•BYC. S. K:i^^^ 



i 






AM 0,0 IR'^'' '' ^ 



THE FREE PRESS PUBLISHING HOUSE, 
Easton, Pa. 

1892. 



GcV \^:\6 



Copyright, 1891, 
BY C. 8. BOUTOHER. 
All Rights Reserved. i(j^-m. 

Of: 



&V 



TO 

EUGENE S. ELLIOTT, 

AND HIS 

Fellow Members of the Mihvaukee Whist Club, 

To whom the Origin of 

THE FIRST AMERICAN WHIST CONGRESS, 

And the Formal ion of 

THE AMERICAN WHIST LEAGUE, 
Are Due, 

IS FRATERNALLY DEDICATED. 



Easton, Pa., 1891. C. S. B. 



INTRODUCTION. 



Whist Sketches in book form are in recognition of 
requests for Free Presses in which they first appeared that 
far outran the supply. 

No claim is made for them. 

They are but the chroniclings of the fiends at their 
virgin Congress, with some running commentary. 

The new matter prepared for Part Second, of the Clubs 
in attendance upon the Congress, the personal of their 
members, the sketch of Mr. Trist, about whom too little 
has been known, that of Mr. Henry Jones, " Cavendish," 
with the reminiscences of that keystone in the solid arch 
of the game, the late James Clay, may have more than a 
passing interest for the whist world. 

The writer thanks the friends who kindly sent him data 
of their Clubs, Mr. C. D. P. Hamilton for his efficient aid, 
" Cavendish " for his good will to American whist players, 
shown by his voluntary contribution of the paper on 
" Whist Contrasts," and Mr. Jones and Mr. Trist for their 
portraits, which, through their faithful reproduction in the 
" Sketches," enables the fraternity of whist fiends to see 
these cranks of high degree just as they are. 



CONTENTS. 



I. 

Introductory — The Need of a Congress — The Whist Prac- 
tice of American Clubs — The Enterprise of the Mil- 
waukee Club — Eugene S. Elliott. . . .5 

II. 

The Easton Whist Cranks trip — The Baltimore and Ohio 
Railroad — The B. & O. Snapper (Limited) — Chicago and 
the American Field — The Great Chicago and North 
Western— Some Wild West Whist on the C. & N. W. 
R. R. — Milwaukee and the Schlitz Hotel— What Mil- 
waukee Herbs are. . . . . .9 

III. 

The Gathering of the fiends— The Rev. Judge Gilson's De- 
cision — Preliminary Whist Skirmishes — Dick Allen and 
the Longer Easton Whist Fiend — Dick First Encounters 
Boston Meditation— Dick's Fourth-Best Principle — The 
Opening of the Congress — President Paine's Address of 
Welcome — The Ladies' Athenoeum— Mr. Kimball, of 
Pliiladelphia, Scores His First Point. . . .14 



Vlll CONTENTS. 

IV. 

The Great Tilt of Milwaukee Against All America — The 
Individualities of the Maelstrom — Kimball, of Philadel- 
phia, Scores Another Point — Summary of the Killed, 
Crippled and Missing — The Moral of the Encounter. . 18 

V. 

The Contest for the Streeter Prize Medal — The Foster Sys- 
tem of Duplicate— Three Clubs Tie— The Saw Off— 
Paine, as Dummy, Wins It, but is Not in it — The Prize 
Goes to the Hamilton Club, Philadelphia — The Kalama- 
zoo Duplicate Trays. . . . . .27 

VI. 

Proceedings of the Second Day's Congress — Interesting Let- 
ter from Nicholas Browse Trist — " Cavendish's" System 
Recommended. . . . . . . 31 

VII. 

A Duplicate Contest Between Milwaukee and Easton — Per- 
sonnel of President Singleton Paine and H. L. Smith — 
A Close Tussel, and Easton Wins. . , .36 

VIII. 

Communication from the Distinguished Authority, "Caven- 
dish "--His Views on King Leads and Four Trump 
Signal— " Cavendish's " Methods with the Whist World— 
R. A, Gurley, of Denver, Enters an Appearance — He is 
. Probably the Originator of the Four Trump Signal. . 40 



CONTENTS. IX 

IX. 

Mr. Foster, of New York, sends us a hand played between 
Ueschappelles' Favorite Partner, Rheinart, and His 
Partner, Wight, and the Easton Delegates — An Inter- 
esting study. . . . . . .45 



The Interest taken by Authorities in Free Press Criticism — 
Mr. Gurley, of Denver, Takes the Floor — He is the 
Father of the Four Trump Signal — He Gives its History, 
and, naturally. Tries to See some Virtue in his "Kid" — 
Mr. Schwarz Says his Say on the Fad— He Agrees with 
the Free Press. . . . . . .53 

XL 

Tlie Dr. Forrest Trophy to be Played for at the Next Con- 
gress — Miss Theresa West on the Bibliography of Whist 
— League Credential Cards— Committee on Permanent 
League Organization — Code of Laws Adopted- by the 
Congress — Opinions of the Laws. . . .61 

XII. 

Duplicate After the Orndorff System — Messrs. Jenkins, 
Hamilton, Fiske and Parry, of the Visitors, against 
Paine, Hall, Northrop and Comstock, of the Milwaukee 
Club— The Visitors Win. . . . .06 

XIII. 

Banquet at the Plankington House — Two Hundred Whist 
Fiends Assembled — Speeches by Presidents Paine and 



X CONTENTS. 

Elliott, Dr. Borland, Commissioner Safford, the Irrepres- 
sible Rocky Mountain Gurley, Captain Walton, W. W. 
Wight, R. F. Foster, and the Rev. Judge Gilson. . 70 

XIV. 

Closing Proceedings of the Congress — Commissioner Saf- 
ford's Resolution on Stakes — Permanent Organization of 
the League — Election of Trist and •* Cavendish " as 
Honorary Members — Resolutions of Respect to the 
Milwaukee Club, President Elliott, Stenographer Good- 
win and Secretary R. F. Foster — Adjournment. . 74 

XV. 

After the Adjournment — The City of Milwaukee — Its Homes 
and Industries — Pabst's great Brewing Plant — No Fiends 
in Sight but Presidents Elliott and Paine. . . 78 

Cavendish's Latest : American Leads Simplified — Some- 
thing for Whist Players to Read. . . .82 



PART SECOND. 



I. 

NICHOLAS BROWSE TRIST. 

Sketch of his Life and Whist Career — His Little Squad of 
Good Players, L. A. BriDgier, his Brother, N. P. Trist, 
W. J. Hare and J. M. Kennedy — Hjs Association with 
" Cavendish " — The American Leads Episode — Trist's 
Club — Its Tournament Play — The Origin of Duplicate 
Whist — First Played in America by Trist Ten Years 
Ago— By " Cavendish " Thirty -Four Years Ago — " Cav- 
endish's " Record of it — Trist Defines a First Rank 
Player — One of Trist's End Plays — The New Orleans 
Chess, Checker and Whist Club — Trist's Whist Associ- 
ates — Trist's Personality and an Estimate of his Whist 
Temperament and aptitudes. . . . .89 

H. 

MILWAUKEE WHIST CLUB. 

Sketch of the Club by " Singleton "—Sketches of Eugene S. 
Elliott, John Rheinart, Judge Gilson, Sam. M. Green, 
Henry C. Payne, George W. Chandler, Leslie Ryan, 
W. W. Thayer and the Late George W. Hall. . . 102 



Xll CONTENTS. 

III. 

NARRAGANSETT WHIST CLUB. 

Sketch of tl^e Club — Its Civil Service Members and who they 
are — Sketches of Walter H. Barney, James A. George, 
Geo. H. Sturdy, Geo. H. Shepley, and G. W. Parker. 116 

IV. 

THE DENVER CLUB. 

Denver — The Type of its Representative Men — The Denver 
Club — Sketch of its President, Henry R. Wolcott — His 
Influence to Promote Better Whist — Messrs. Jerome, 
Denman, Bissell, Sullivan, Cherry, C. D. Gurley and 
the Irrepressible R. A. Gurley. . . .125 

V. 

THE HAMILTON CLUB. 

Its Origin — Its Handsome New Club House — Membership — 
Its Tournament Team — List of Some of its Strong 
Players — The Whist Hand in which Each Player held 
Thirteen Cards of a Suit — Its Doings at the Congress. 129 

VL 

WORCESTER AND EASTON. 

The Commonwealth Club, of Worcester, ^Nlass. — Its Mem- 
bership, Laws, and Record of Contests — Fines for 
Deviations from the Order for the Original Lead — Thos. 



CONTENTS. Xlll 

C. Orndorff. The Pomfret Club, of Easton, Pa.— Its 
Rules, and Method of Duplicate — Its Delegates in the 
Milwaukee "Cyclone." . . . .133 

VII. 

GROUP OF EASTERN CLUBS. 

The Washington, D. C, Clubs; The Bicycle, The Chess, 
Checker and Whist, and the Columbia Athletic Clubs — 
The Owl Club, of St. Albans, Vt.— Sketch of A. G. 
Safeord~The Cherry Diamond Whist Club— The Man- 
hattan Whist Club— The Albany Club. . .137 

VIII. 

CHICAGO CLUBS. 

Englewood and Chicago Whist Clubs — Theodore Schwarz — 
The Wahpanseh Club— H. B. Herr— The Park Club 
Whist Association— The P. D. Q. Whist Club—List of 
its Members — The Illinois Club — The American Whist 
Club— The Ashland Club— The Chicago Duplicate Whist 
Club— The Evanston Whist Club— The Hyde Park 
Whist Club— The Kenwood Whist Club— The Oak Park 
Whist Club— The University Club. . . .142 

IX. 

MINNESOTA CLUBS. 

Sketches of the Minneapolis Chess, Checker and Whist Club, 
and of the St. Paul Whist Club — The Union League 
Club, of Minneapolis. . . . .147 



XIV CONTENTS. 

X. 

A GROUP OF WESTERN CLUBS. 

The Wausau Club— The Oshkosh Whist Club— The Detroit 
Whist Club— The Indianapolis Whist Club— The Wau- 
kesha Club— The Hillsdale Whist Club— The Commer- 
cial Club, of Dubuque. .... 152 

XI. 

A TRIST APPENDIX. 

Additional of Trist and his Quartette, Kennedy, Hare and 
Briugier — Four Experts who have Visited his Club : 
W. J. Whaley, of Charleston, S. C, R. A. Gurley, of 
Denver, Lieutenant Niles, U. S. A., and John Rheiuart, 
of Milwaukee — The Late Richard A. Proctor's Whist 
Traits — The Chess Champions, Steinitz and Zukertort's 
Whist — Steinitz Plays Seven Games of Chess and a 
Game of Whist, Blindfolded, at One Time. . . 156 

XII. 

"CAVENDISH." 

Biography of Henry Jones, " Cavendish " — His College 
Days — As an M. D. — His Literary Life — His Whist 
Life— Founding the "Little School"— Dr. Pole and 
James Clay — As a Writer on Whist — First Edition of 
" Cavendish "—The Portland Club. . . .160 



CONTENTS. XV 

XIII. 

WHIST CONTRASTS. 

A Suggestion for Teachers of Whist, an Original Paper Pre- 
pared for ♦' Whist Sketches " by " Cavendish." . 163 

XIV. 

JAMES CLAY. 

Incidents in his Whist Life— Anecdotes— His Whist Practice 
and Customs. Prepared for "Whist Sketches" by a 
Member of his Family. . ^ ^ 268 

XV. 
AMERICAN LEADS. 

The System Adopted by the Congress, formulated by 
"Cavendish "in his 19th Edition— The Differences in 
the "Cavendish "and the " G. W. P." Leads Pointed 
^"*- • . . . .171 

Whist Outfits. ^«. 

. 174 



ILLUSTRATIONS 

Reproduced from. Original Photographs by the Pennsyl- 
vania Engraving Co., 114 to 120 South Seventh 
Street, Philadelphia, 

Fkontispieoe — Group : 

Dennis Sullivan, A. A. Denman, James A. Cherry, C. D. 
Gurley, R. A. Gurley, H. R. Wolcott, J. L. Jerome, 
J. B. Bissell, Denver, Colorado. — R. F. Foster, New 
York.— W. P. Stewart, Detroit, Mich.— A. G. Safford, 
Washington, D. C. — Walter H. Barney, Providence, 
R. I. — Theodore Schwarz, Chicago. — Henry Jones, 
"Cavendish," London, England. — N. B. Trist, New 
Orleans. — C. A. Chapin, Eugene S. Elliott, Cassius 
M. Paine, Milwaukee, Wis. — E. Price Townsend, 
Philadelphia.— C. S. Boutcher, C. D. P. Hamilton, 
Easton, Pa. 

Nicholas Browse Trist. . . . . .89 

Eugene S. Elliott. ..... 105 

Henry Jones, " Cavendish." .... 161 



PART FIRST. 



I. 

Introductory — The Need of a Congress — The Whist Prac- 
tice of American Clubs — The Enterprise of the Mil- 
waukee Club — Eugene 8. Elliott. 

C|^HE desire has long existed, coupled with more or less 
^J desultory endeavor, to bring about a better acquaint- 
ance between the whist organizations of the United 
States, with such interchange of opinions, as would 
result in uniting the scattered whist forces into a broth- 
erhood, and of harmonizing the discrepant systems of 
play, and of laws, into a system upon which the repre- 
sentative whist authorities should agree as the best 
system and the best code of laws to reach this most de- 
sirable end of uniformity. 

The whist practice of the American clubs has been at 
sea, so far as uniformity is concerned, differing as widely 
in system as in rules for play and penalties. In count, 
honors have become practically obsolete, but five points, 
seven points, continuous count, trebles, doubles and sin- 
gles, turning the trump from the live pack or cutting it 
from the dead pack, or announcing one suit for trump 
during a sitting, have all had their respectable following. 
The difference in system of play has been as pronounced. 
Among players of rank, those who follow the English 
custom of playing for a stake, prefer the English five 
point game, with or without honors, and play the hands 
out or not as the case may be. Another body of players 
of rank place most stress upon utilizing all of the 



6 WHIST SKETCHES. 

resources of the hands. Hence they prefer that seven 
points shall constitute the game, and that the continuous 
record of the points shall be scored. Those who play 
for a consideration, care not how quickly a game is 
through ; the other class care not how prolonged it is, 
so that the hands are played out, and properly. It is 
evident upon the face, which class of players cares most 
for the royal game for its own sake. Though whist is 
not a gambling game (or rather, there are a few Ameri- 
can games that far out-trump it for that purpose) and 
though the stakes put on it be insignificant, the practice 
unquestionably detracts from the quality of play. 

This rank of players generally follows some conven- 
tional line of play — either Cavendish's earlier system, 
or his later adoptions, or the American practice of Trist, 
Pettes, Ames or others of their type. The foundation, 
or mapping out the play of their hands is based upon 
conventional system. 

The other class of players, or the rank and file, play 
all sorts of whist — old style, new style and mixed styles. 
They have little respect for conventions, and generally 
adapt their play to their own hands. Their game is a 
miscellaneous scramble for tricks with master cards, and 
their ideal, a rutf. After tlie smoke of battle of the aces 
and kings has cleared, their minor cards are either help- 
less, or but factors of chance. Doubtless this affords 
them amusement, and they fancy they are playing whist. 

The consolidation of whist forces into a union, and the 
adoption of a uniform system and code of laws, will un- 
questionably exert a powerful influence for a higher 



WHIST SKETCHES. 7 

order of play than now exists, not only in the clubs, but 
with the miscellaneous nuiltitude, who cannot escape the 
leaven that flows from organized sources. 

To the enterprise of the West — and especially to the 
City of Milwaukee — the whist world of America is in- 
debted for the accomplishment of this union, which 
marks a most important stage in the history of whist. 

The Milwaukee Whist Club was organized in 1875, 
and has seventy-three active members. As a body they 
number more strong players than any whist club in the 
West. Their contests of record with the clubs of twelve 
Western cities cover a period of ten years, in which 
series they have lost but two sittings, their total winning 
score being 2,840 points and their losing score but 52 
points. They earned their right to be classed as the 
leading whist club of the West, not upon any theoreti- 
cal base, but by battle and victory. 

The idea of a National W^hist Congress brewed with 
these broad-minded Milwaukeeans for a year (their other 
great brew being Pabt's.) 

The club was indefatigable in its purpose of bringing 
the subject before the clubs of the country, and interest- 
ing I hem in it. Enough encouragement was met with 
for them to announce that the "First American W^hist 
Congress" would assemble in Milwaukee April 14-17, 
1891. 

To Eugene S. Elliott, the head of a leading law firm 
of the city, more than to any other one man its accom- 
plishment was due. He was unremitting in his personal 
efforts, and in his correspoiitience with clubs, to stimulate 



8 WHIST SKETCHES. 

interest in the Congress. He would not accept denial, 
or doubt, but labored to remove all obstacles that arose. 
These were generally in the line of indifference or skep- 
ticism, and how effectually he eliminated these elements 
was shown by the representation at the Congress. 

His generous club asked nothing but the presence of 
their whist brethren. They were their guests, and right 
royally they entertained them. They spared neither 
endeavor nor expense, they dropped all other business, 
so they could devote their entire time to making the 
delegates visit interesting. For their Congress they se- 
cured one of the handsomest buildings in the city, the 
Ladies' Athenaeum, whether for money or love we can- 
not say, but we should say for love, if the beauty and 
worth of their ladies count; but may be these sagacious 
women hold that to be too insubstantial a return for 
their beautiful quarters. Their Athenaeum is one of the 
features of the city. It is owned exclusively by a guild 
of ladies, and is managed by them. It is not strictly a 
club house, but it is comfortably and luxuriously ap- 
pointed throughout, from its kitchen to its parlors, 
reception rooms and library, and to its auditoriums, of 
which there are two. It is always open to members, 
but its main line of use to them is for holding meetings 
of ladies' societies, and as a place for balls or receptions 
by individual members, instead of at their homes. 

It is our purpose to write a general sketch and review 
of the First American Whist Congress, and this, in a 
cursory way, is introductory to it. 



11. 

The Easton Whist Grinks' trip — The Baltimore <S: Ohio 
Railroad — The B. & 0. Snapper {Limited) — Chicago 
and the American Field — The Great Chicago and 
N^orth Western — Some Wild West Whist on the C. & N. 
W. R. R' — Milwaukee and the Schlitz Hotel — What 
Mihvaukee herbs are. 

'wo long-built Easton cranks with whist on the 
brain got a spell of Milwaukee congress fever, and 
from the inapulse of it, took the old reliable North Penn. 
on the 11th of April, stopped over in Philadelphia for 
the night, doctored the fever with an interesting rubber 
at the handsome quarters of the Hamilton Whist Club, 
and on Sunday morning took the famous B. & O. Blue 
Line limited flyer for the fever's source. Blue Line is 
a misnomer, so far as color goes, for its appointments 
are in olive bronze, but it takes its name from its move- 
ment, which is like blue lightning. The train is taken 
over the river to Baltimore on a boat, and chatting on 
it with the engineer, he patted his locomotive, as it were, 
and said it w^as a fine drawer. It drew us into Wash- 
ington — 136 miles— in three hours and fifteen minutes. 
Outside of the moral aspect, Sunday is a good day for 
a journey. The road is clear, and the press of general 
travel lighter. 

The B. & O. is pre-eminently a picturesque route, and 
the Potomac, Harper's Ferry, Martinsburg, Cumber- 
land, etc., are alive with historic suggestions. At Harp- 



10 ■ WHIST SKETCHES. 

er's Ferry, the old brick fort of the martyr, John Brown, 
still stands near the track, a monument of pathetic 
dilapidation. 

Perhaps the most realistic and romantic descriptions 
of these historic grounds and of the old martyr himself, 
who was fighting, not against the United States, but 
against slavery, will be found in "Gath's/' (George Al- 
fred Townsend's) novel, "Katy of Katoctiu." 

The road offers a magnificent scope of changing scenes 
in its route over the Apalachian chain of mountains, to 
the lover of bold and rugged landscape. 

Deer Park, on the Summit, 200 miles from Washing- 
ton, claims the passing attention from its publicity 
through its being the favorite resort of ex-President 
Cleveland. It is a charming spot, even in its Spring 
desertion. But with its Summer life and tempered air 
the fancy can well conceive the charm it wields for tired 
presidents. Mansfield, Ohio, not materially different 
from other cities on the line, arouses interest as being 
the home of Senator Sherman. The flaming jets of nat- 
ural gas in the oil fields on the line claim the attention 
at night. At North Baltimore there is a forest of oil 
derricks as far as the eye can trace. When the dead 
level of the prairies is reached, with the Spring rains 
lying in spots and the frogs croaking, it looks as if there 
might be a fair demand for quinine, but the residents 
claim (and they look it) that it is perfectly healthy. 
Yet some of them will say there is a " little malaria over 
in the next county .'' The territory is all thickly settled 
and bears the evidence of thrift. 



WHIST SKETCHES. 11 

The Sunday quiet was broken but once, when a party 
boarded the train carrying as baggage an unbridled 
twenty-pound snapping turtle by the tail. As he passed 
down the aisle toward the baggage car the chelonian 
caught a bulldog grip on one of the olive plush seats 
that made it need patching. That snapper evidently 
knew the B. & O. didn't charge extra for vestibuled 
limited service, and entered his protest against going 
into the baggage car. 

Our train drew into the station in the windy and 
beautiful city of the coming World's Fair at 11.40 
o'clock Monday morning on time to the minute. 

The cranks stopped off there a few hours to breathe 
and eat and make some calls, among the latter, was one 
on Dr. Rowe, the veteran editor of the American Field, 
the paper that all genuine lovers of field sports swear by. 
The responsibilities of a journal that has grown into 
such cosmopolitan proportions as the Field, has not told 
npon the genial doctor, and he looks as hearty as he did 
ten years ago, though he says it sadly cuts into his time 
for his favorite raids after chickens, quails, snipe and 
ducks. The only way he can get an undisturbed hunt 
now, beyond business recall, he says, is to steal off to 
Europe and show the noble nimrods, with their great 
game preserves, how to shoot in American. 

The great Chicago and Northwestern Railway grid- 
irons 4400 miles of the Northwest, and reaches about 
every point that a reasonable natured person could de- 
sire to arrive at for business or pleasure. In the latter 
schedule it covers the paradise of the country for sports- 



12 WHIST SKETCHES. 

men, and its resources for the hunter and the fisher are 
as varied as they are unrivalled. The Summer tourist 
travel and that of the fraternity of sportsmen form an 
important part of its traffic. One of its veins takes in 
Milwaukee, following the lake shore. It took us there 
in three hours. On the train we had our first Western 
whist. A party of three wishing a rubber, the longer 
Eastern crank sat in for the fourth. The three played 
their own hands without regard to partners, and the 
fourth had to follow suit, until one of the Westerners 
reached his destination, when the two Eastern cranks 
satin as partners and opened out jointly on the " G, 
W. P." plan. One of the opponents knew how to play 
whisr. The other, a handsome elderly man, who could 
have passed for either a bank president or clergyman, 
couldn't, or rather he played strictly for his own hand, 
and made his partner do likewise. The partner knew 
when and why the lightning struck. The handsome 
elderly man said he had never sat in such a run of luck, 
or where the cards lay so unfavorably. '^ Why," said 
he to the long-built cranks, "you're in luck with your 
finesses ; you haven't made one that hasn't turned out 
well, and I haven't tried one that hasn't broken us all 
to pieces." They stopped at Racine, and as they walked 
off arm in arm, the clerical-looking man was taking in 
some vigorous pointers from the other, who was, evi- 
dently, a club player. 

The Easton whist cranks disembarked at Milwaukee 
in the early evening, and abided while there at the 
Schlitz Hotel on the European plan, and German in 



WIIIST SKETCHES. 13 

tone (but Milwaukee is founded on German, as our 
Northampton county is on Pennsylvania Dutch). 

It is excellently kept as to rooms, table and service, 
and is an entirely satisfactory hotel. The only dis- 
crepancy we ran across was listed on the menu as a fine 
herb omlet. I'he omlet arrived stuifed with chopped 
onions, potatoes, limberger and cucumber pickles. The 
waiter said that was a German fine lierb omlet. We 
told him how to translate it into United States herbs the 
next time, and he was an apt learner. 



III. 

The Gatherwg of the Fiends — The Rev. Judge Gilson's 
Diecison — Preliminary Whist Skirmishes — Dich Allen 
and the Longer Easton Fiend — Dich First Encounters 
Boston Meditation — DicMs Fourth Best Principle — 
The Opening of the Congress — President Paine^s 
Address of Welcome — The Ladies^ Athenceum — Mr. 
Kimball, of Philadelphia Scores His First Point, 

S the late lamented John Milton might have put 
it ; Forthwith from all winds the living fiends 
did gather in the city by the inland sea. From the 
Atlantic to the Pacific, from the bounds of Canada to 
the Gulf of Mexico, did they come The long-geared 
fiends of Easton were dubbed fools for going over a 
thousand miles to play a game of whist, ft was not an 
astonishing coincidence that nearly every fiend assem- 
.bled in Milwaukee carried with him the same stigma, 
some of them with a profane prefix or two added. The 
reverend Judge Gilson, of Milwaukee, gave as his deci- 
sion that both the law and the sentence for these blinded 
stone casters were proclaimed 1900 years ago (Matthew 
v. 22). 

The evening of the 13th of April was spent by the 
visiting delegates at the rooms of the Milwaukee Whist 
Club in making the acquaintance of its members. This 
acquaintance required nothing more than an interchange 
of names, for the visitors were received as brothers, with 
open arms, and the cordiality and hospitality were as 



WHIST SKETCHES. 15 

sincere as they were unreserved. Informal rubbers of 
whist were engaged in, with whist talk and comparison 
of whist views in the interval. Easton played a num- 
ber of hands against a few of the crack players of the 
club and against some of the delegates. Later the longer 
Easton fiend struck Eufus (hight Dick) Allen, one of 
the features of the club, for a partner. Dick plays by 
the individual Dick system, and during the rubber he 
kept the Boston meditation of the Easton fiend in a 
state of supreme tension in the department of whist 
inference. Dick's favorite fourth best principle as an 
original lead, is to open with the lowest from a suit of 
one or two low cards. His favorite coup, with two or 
three high cards in sequence, is to follow suit with the 
highest or intermediate card. The Boston meditation 
was kept by Dick in a tolerably steady state of tropi- 
cal sweat. It remarked to Dick, after the rubber, that 
it was tough to come 1600 miles to be put through the 
paces of a guessing match by a duffer. Dick is not a 
slow judge of human nature, and didn't take Easton 
seriously enough to invite it to burn powder with him 
at a lonely spot on the lake, but put it in quotation 
marks for frequent use during the week. 

For the sessions of the Congress, the club, as we have 
stated, engaged the Athenaeum — the beautiful and capa- 
cious club house owned by the ladies of Milwaukee. 

The First American Whist Congress convened in it 
April 14th, 1891, at 3 o'clock p. m. President Cassius 
M. Paine opened the session with a compact address of 
welcome, in which, after referring to the motive of the 



16 WHIST SKETCHES. 

Congress and the history of whist, with some brief words 
of Milwaukee's growth as a business and art centre, he 
said : 

We take exceptional pride in placing this handsome 
building at your disposal, the Athenseum. It is owned 
and managed exclusively by ladies. They organized 
the corporation, subscribed the stock, and made the 
undertaking a permanent success. You will find many 
other features of interest. 

The Layton Art Gallery, which is directly on the way 
from here to your hotel, is deserving of not only one, 
but several visits. Our beautiful bay and handsome 
residences cannot fail to charm you. 

(Mr. William S. Kimball, of the Hamilton Club, 
Philadelphia, here interrupted Mr. Paine on a point of 
order for his omitting to say that the ladies of the 
Athenaeum and of the city of Milwaukee were hand- 
somer and more charming than their handsome homes. 
Mr. Kimball was unanimously sustained by the dele- 
gates, and Mr. Paine accepted the amendment with a 
trifle of confusion, but with the apt remark that it was 
more becoming for this recognition to come from the 
visitors than from a resident.) 

Mr. Paine continued — Gentlemen : You are convened 
to organize the First American Whist Congress. 

To this end the Milwaukee Whist Club is merely a 
unit, and will not even present a suggestion until after 
the organization, and then only on the same terms as 
the other delegates. 

We are assembled under the most propitious circum- 



WHIST SKETCHES. 17 

stances for entertainment and good fellowship. The 
credentials of a whist player are the best letter of intro- 
duction you could possibly bring. Whist is an evidence 
of gentility, therefore, wherever whist is played intelli- 
gently, good society may also be found, and the 
announcement, " I am a whist player," will always gain 
an entrance to that society. We hope, therefore, you 
will feel at home from the start, and be free to converse 
with all. If you do not know each other when you sit 
down to play, you will be acquainted when the game is 
over. This is a part of whist developments. 

W^e reproduce this part of President Paine's address, 
rather than its technical portions, to show the spirit of 
good will and hospitality that possessed these broad 
natured Milwaukeeans for their visitors and guests. 

Mr. Eugene S. Elliott, of the home club, was then 
nominated for chairman, and he was unanimously elec- 
ted both temporary and permanent chairman of the 
Congress. 

E,. F. Foster, of the Manhattan Club, New York, 
was elected Secretary. Mr. Elliott, on taking the chair, 
made a brief and appropriate address. 

Some general discussion then followed as to the line 
of business the Congress should act upon, with the bet- 
ter method of transacting it. A few committees were 
appointed, and with the announcement of the pro- 
gramme for the evening's play, that the Milwaukee Club 
would meet any number of the delegates in friendly 
contests, the Congress adjourned. , 



IV. 

The Great Tilt of Milwaukee Against All America — 
The Individualities of the Maelstrom — Kimball ^ of 
Philadelphia, Scores Anotherr Point — Summary of the 
Killed y Crippled and Missing — The Moral of the 
Encounter, 

^ifF there is any one event of the Congress more 
Si worthy of special note than another, it is the contest 
of Tuesday evening, April 14, when the Milwaukeeaus 
met in combat the picked pairs of the country and 
"scooped 'em/^ The Milwaukee whist cranks are 
pretty hardy fellows, but the result of this battle was 
too much for most of them. It wasn't pleasurable to 
meet any of them after the fight ; it was awkward 
explaining how it so happened. The burden of proof 
was against you, if you were a visitor. 

This Milwaukee Club has been altogether too success- 
ful — too successful by far — in all of its inter-club con- 
tests, for continued scccess has the tendency of making 
even whist cranks vain, and it was remarked that some 
of these fellows carried their heads rather high. On 
this account it was hoped that this time the Milwaukee 
Whisl Club would receive an "all fired licking '^ from 
the foreign contingent ; but it was not so nominated in 
the bond, for when the smoke of battle cleared away it 
was found that the visitors were the victims to the tune 
of 267 points. 



WHIST SKETCHES. 19 

Play commenced at 8 o'clock. There were twenty- 
six tables — 104 players in all. This is, perhaps, the 
largest number of players ever engaged in a match in 
this or any other country. Play closed at 11 o'clock. 
The detailed score follows. (The Milwaukeeans are 
named first in each instance.) 

Allen and Gilson, 77 ; Ellison and Townsend, 57. 

The least we say about " Dick " (they call Rufus 
Allen ^' Dick " in Milwaukee) and the Judge, the better, 
perhaps — for us. We ran afoul of the first named the 
evening we landed, and we haven't yet recovered from 
the effects of it. By the time this crack pair from the 
Hamilton Club of Philadelphia got through dodging 
the chicanery of this versatile duo they probably didn't 
know if they were afoot or ahorseback. 

Atwater and Chapin, 62 ; Parks and Hays, of St. 
Paul, Minn., 55. 

Chapin is a modest fellow, and stopped at 62. 
Nobody will ever know where this score would have 
gone to had Chapin not held Atwater in. 

Blecher snd Dorland, 40 ; C>rndorff and Stewart, the 
former of Worcester and the latter of Detroit, 29. 

You see it is easy to account for this little matter of 
11 points. Stewart was reserving his strength for the 
individual contest, and Orndorff's duplicate whist sys- 
tem was nearest his heart. Had the doctor not been 
thinking of chicken salad and quail on toast, and who 
he would corral for his toast victims, he probably 
wouldn't have trumped Belcher's ace — but 11 is enough. 



20 WHIST SKETCHES. 

CoDistock and Chandler, 87 ; Briggs and Briggs, of 
Minneapolis, 48. 

It will take this blooming pair of purple lilacs from 
Minneapolis the rest of their natural lives to account for 
this result. The tricks that the B's didnH score " were 
frightful to see/' and the Milwaukee pair counted faster 
than a Minneapolis census enumerator. (Referred to 
St. Paul.) Chandler wanted to go faster, but Comstock 
said : "No, let's keep the score under 300." 

Thayer and Northrop, 81 ; Safford, of Washington^ 
and Barney, of Providence, R. I., 59. 

This is nothing. What else can y(>u expect when 
you hitch up a Rhode Island Yankee and an Inter- 
State Commission Attorney, if Thayer hadn't missed 
Northrop's trump signal — but Thayer says he saw it 
and refrained from answering out of purely humane 
motives. 

Hall and Elliott, 52; Smith and Lodge, of Albany* 
N. Y., 48. 

Chairman Elliott had no business to ask Smith right 
out blunt what a " composite picture was" — to spring 
it on him like a Johnstown flood ! It was a very cool 
procedure, and if Elliott didn't know what a " couiposite 
picture" was, how did he expect Smith to know? This 
is about the only rude thing Elliott did. Lodge swears 
this is the reason they got worsted. Hall insists that 
the excuse lacks relevancy, as Elliott shot the interroga- 
tory at Smith on Thursday. 

Streeter and Hopkins, 67 ; Hall and Stevens, of Uni- 
versity Club, Chicago, 65. . 



WHIST SKETCHES. 21 

It tvas expected that Chicago would get there — she 
generally does. Hopkins says that Streeter's mind was 
on that magnificent Townsend medal ; hence, the nar- 
row margin. 

Hard and Josslyn, 62; Fisk and Waller, of Uni- 
versity Club, Chicago, 51. 

It could hardly be expected that the University Club 
should get everything. This is a first-class excuse for 
these 11 points. 

Hickok and Atwell, 65 ; Young and Reed, 46. 

Young gives as an excuse for this that he couldn't 
read his partner's play. 

Nash and Merrill, 60 ; Rowlson and Burnham, of 
Hillsdale, Mich., 35. 

This is only a little matter of 25 points. Hillsdale 
is probably used to this — they don't try to explain it. 

Crossraan and Patterson, 36 ; Herr and Pickering, 
Wahpanseh, of Chicago, 53. 

Wahpanseh got there. This is probably why Herr 
objected to having his photograph taken unless he had 
a day or two's time to fix up. He is a modest fellow — 
so Pickering says. He was noted for this trait when he 
filled the chair of civil engineering in Lehigh Uni- 
versity, Bethlehem. 

Dewey and Bryden, 38 ; Kimball and Walton, of the 
Hamilton Club, Philadelphia, 39. 

This Hamiltonian pair of thoroughbreds trotted well 
together and came in a nose ahead — won by one they 
came. Kimball says that it was his finesse that did it. 



22 WHIST SKETCHES. 

and he is going to teach it to Townsend and EHison 
before they go to Milwaukee again. 

Ryan and Tweedy, 38 ; Schwarz and Kirk, of the 
Englewood Club, Chicago, 60. 

Nothing mean about the city of Chicago. She will 
take in Milwaukee the next time she '^ extends.'' 

Pirie and Swan, 53 ; Holden and Hammondj of the 
Illinois Club, Chicago, 61. 

They told us in Chicago that Hammond said : " Hold 
on, the play is too swan-like.'' If ^'Ham." really said 
this, it was equivalent to taking an unfair advantage, for 
how could Pirie and Swan play whist after a pun like 
this? 

Bass and Keats, 51 ; Sheldon and Walker, of Chi- 
cago, 48. 

As this only adds the odd three to the 267, it's not 
worth talking about. 

Delaney and Graves, 52; French and Walker, of 
Chicago, 29. 

Walker, when questioned, said solemnly that it was 
a very grave affair ; so much so that French didn't play 
his usual game. There might be some truth in this. 

Rheinart and Wight, 62 ; Hamilton and Boutcher, 
of Easton, 29. 

Did you ever step on quicksand, fancying it was firm 
earth ? Ever lay your hand on the teeth of a corn 
sheller, or get caught in a thunder storm without your 
lightning rod ? Ever in a detatchment of Grant's regu- 
lars on a reconnoisance and get swooped upon by Gen. 
Moseby's guerrillas ? We shall be happy to give any 



WHIST SKETCHES. 23 

skeptic letters and let him feel the corn sheller of Geu. 
Moseby Rheinart's and Wight's guerrilla tactics. 

Payne and Hopkins, 86 ; Luce and Shumway, of 
Chicago, 77. 

Shuraway said that it gave him a pain the way Hop- 
kins hopped around from one suit to another. Luce 
ventured to remark that some way or another they were 
9 points to the bad. 

Mann and Greene, 59 ; Heron and Anderson, of 
Indianapolis Whist Club, 52. 

Heron said they had a green man against them and 
should win. Anderson was heard to remark the next 
day that had Heron's head been as long as his legs he 
would not have presumed so much. 

Swain and Sanderson, 57 ; Boyd and Bates, of Wau- 
kesha, Wis., 31. 

Some said that Boyd bet Bates that " apt alliteration's 
artful aid " would stand them in good stead. But pains- 
taking Paine caught on and met the B's with S's, which 
accounts for this little matter of 26. 

Kurtz and !Nunnemacher, 32; Comminger and Cat- 
tersoM, of Indianapolis, 69. 

This was due to a misunderstanding. Kurtz and 
Nunnemacher thought that Paine and Elliott wanted 
the Milwaukee boys to be easy — part of the courtesy 
and hospitality of the club. But it seems that these 
two were one of the very few pairs who paid any atten- 
tion to orders. 

Smith and Paine, 92 ; Gurley and Cherry, of the 
Denver Whist Club, 58. 



24 WHIST SKETCHES. 

Gurley told us Saturday night, in Chicago, in the cafe 
of the Grand Pacific — while we were waiting for a 
lemonade — in his emphatic Rocky Mountain style, that 
it was " Raw Bald headed Luck." Cherry — who, by 
the way, asked for " one " — was reticent, but he did say 
later on in the night that Gurley had prompted Safford 
to offer that resolution on betting, and he winked sug- 
gestiv^ely. Just imagine if this had been for a nickel 
a point — 58 from 92 leaves — but anybody can see that 
betting " is contrary to good morals." This child like 
and bland Paine and "Intaglio" make a smooth pair 
and will come the " Pa and Uncle George " on you any 
time. 

Farnham and Moore, 41 ; Bates and Lewis, of 
Indianapolis, 43. 

This is one of the few oases in the vast desert of 
defeats. It might have been more the other way if 
Farnham had unblocked. 

Vilas and McGregor, 52 ; Cushman and Smitli, of 
Boston, 54. 

This tickled Cushman more than all the big bills he 
will sell in a month. 

Brigham and Miller, 71 ; Richards, of Dubuque, and 
Everard, of Kalamazoo, 45. 

This broke the Dubuquean's heart, and the '^subsequent 
proceedings" had no interest for B. L. R. Everard's 
countenance betokened that he would like a shot at this 
pair with his duplicate trays. 

Moody and Atkins, 52 ; Sholl and Cherrill, of Car- 
thage, 27. 



WHIST SKETCHES. 25 

Cherrill said it made him moody the way Atkins 
shirked the conventionalities, but he always found when 
depositors were short in liis bank, the more they were 
short, and the more they explained, the less convincing 
they were. So he thought talents of the " silent kind," 
like Dudu's, discreeter, and he'd charge the 25 points 
up to the shady side of profit and loss without ado. 

SUMMARY. 

Tables 26 

Milwaukee made in points 1,525 

Visitors " " 1,258 

Milwaukee Club won by.. 267 

Milwaukee pairs who won 18 

Visiting pairs 8 

The general explanation for this roasting is, "it was 
luck." But don't lay such flattering unction to your 
soul. Recollect there were 26 tables, and that play 
lasted for three hours. 

Just put this on your bulletin board : 

'' The 52 Milwaukee players played might heady 
whist," and put the work " luck " in your pipe and 
smoke it. Some were disposed to attribute results to 
guerrilla versus regular tactics, but they should remem- 
ber there is as much difference in the strength of guer- 
rilla as in regular conventions — for instance, General 
Moseby Rheinart's. Their own Western poet, " Iron- 
quill," writes a cyclonic fable, from which, with a little 
paraphrasing, can be drawn quite an applicable Mil- 
waukcean moral : 



26 WHIST SKETCHES. 

Once a Kansas zephyr strayed 
Where a brass-eyed bird-pup played^ 
And that foolish canine bayed 
At that zephyr in a gay, 
Semi-idiotic way, 
Then that zephyr, in about 
Half a jiflfy, took that pup. 
Tipped him over wrong-side up. 
Then it turned him inside out, 
And it calmly journeyed thence, 
With a barn and string of fence. 

When communities turn loose 
Social forces that produce 

The disorders of a gale 
Act upon the well-known law ; 
Face the breeze, but close your jaw, 

It's a rule that will not fail. 
If you bay it in a gay. 
Self-sufficient sort of way. 

It will land you, without doubt, 

Upside down and inside out. 



V. 



The Contest for the Streeter Prize Medal— The Foster 

System of Duplicate— Three Clubs Tie—The Saw 

Off— Paine, as Dummy, Wins It, hut is Not in It-^ 

The Prize Goes to the Hamilton Club, Philadelphia— 

^ The Kalamazoo Duplicate Trays. 

#N Wednesday afternoon the contest for the prize 
medal, worth §200, offered by Mr. A. Streeter, of 
the Milwaukee Club, for the best individual score, took 
place. It was our opinion then as it is now, and it 
was also the opinion of the Committee on Matches of 
which Mr. Orndorff, of Worcester, an expert on dupli- 
cate whist matters, and Captain Walton, of the Hamil- 
ton Club, of Philadelphia, who was Chairman, were 
mem[)ers, that there can be no method devised by which 
a fair test of the individual strength of so many con- 
testants may be compared. 

This is particularly true of a contest of such magni- 
tude when the play can last but a few hours. It was 
thought by many that this match should not take place 
and that Mr. Streeter be asked to offer his beautiful 
trophy to competing pairs or to teams of four. Time 
however, was pressing, and the committee finally de- 
cided that it had no option in the matter, and that it 
must decide upon some system. Several svstems were 
suggested, but that of Mr. Foster^s invention seemed to 
be the only one which in any measure met the require- 



28 WHIST SKETCHES. 

mentsofthe case, the committee trusting that by this 
plan an approximate estimate of the individual rank of 
the participants might be obtained. 

We believe that a contest or tournament under Mr. 
Foster's system lasting several days between players, 
the weakest of whom play fair whist, would result in 
bunching the strongest at the top, and that a very fair 
grade of all the players, as to their relative rank, could 
be obtained. 

By Mr. Foster's system the greatest number of points 
made by any pair in any hand establishes the standard 
of the possibilities of this hand. To illustrate this, A B, 
two players of ordinary force, play a hand against two 
very weak opponents, C D, and through the weak play, 
or bad blunders, or both, of D, A B score all tliirteen 
tricks, or 7 by cards. The score sheet shows A B, 13; 
C D, 0. The score sheet travels with this hand, and 
this hand is played by every other pair against pair. 
Now, suppose that this hand and score sheet come to a 
table at which four fine players are sitting. The hand is 
played in the best manner possible by all, no trick having 
been lost, and C D score the odd card. This entry is 
now placed upon the score sheet A B, 6 ; C D, 7. Here 
you see '' A B No. 2 " have lost 7 tricks as against '^ A 
B No. 1," and "CD No. 2 '' liave gained 7 tricks over 
«' C D No. 1." In the A B's the ordinary players have 
an advantage of 7 tricks over the fine pair of players. 
Now if '^ A B No. 2 " could meet "CD No. 1 '' they 
might have a chance of squaring up the score, but in 
this particular instance *' A B No. 2 " did not have " C 



WHIST SKETCHES. 29 

D No. 1 " for adversaries, unless they happened to be 
in their set of eight, as you only changed places and 
partners with the players at your own table and the 
table next to you. The fault was more due to the lack 
of time, to thoroughly test the system, and the players, 
than to the system, as Mr. Foster pointed out. 

Over sixty took j)art in the contest and 576 hands 
were played. After three hours' play the result showed 
that Mr. E. P. Townsend, of the Hamilton Club, Mr. 
W. P. Stewart, of the Detroit Club, and C. D. P. Ham- 
ilton, of the Pomfret Club, had tied for the trophy, each 
having lost according to the plan of reckoning 10 tricks. 

How to decide this " three cornered " result was a 
puzzler. Mr. Streeter finally suggested that a fourth man 
be taken in to make up the table, and then each of the 
three "champions " play an equal number ot hands with 
the fourth man as partner. This seemed to be the best 
way out of the difficulty and was unanimously agreed to. 

Mr. C. M. Paine, the President of the Milwaukee 
Club, was the choice of all three. Mr. Paine '' not to 
be in it," except as the make up." The final struggle 
came off Friday morning and afternoon, ending a little 
after 7 in the evening. 

Ihling Bros, and Everard's duplicate whist system, 
known as the Kalamazoo method, was adopted for this 
contest. 

The final result was in the nature of a joke, for when 
the scores were added up, it was found that the '^ make- 
up," Mr. Paine, had the highest score, and had, conse- 
quently, played the best whist — at least he had 8 points 



30 WHIST SKETCHES. 

more to his credit than the next highest — Mr. Town- 
send, but, as Mr. Paine was " not in it," the trophy was 
handed to Mr. Townsend. Mr. Paine is not a vain man, 
and he unconsciously blushed at the splendid compli- 
ment the final score paid him, for he was indeed " in 
it " with a vengeance after all. 

The duplicate trays, or tablets, referred to, obviate the 
mechanical objections to duplicate whist, and render it 
simple and practicable. The trays are binders' boards 
about ten inches square, covered with cloth. The face 
of them have stars and indices to mark the dealer and 
leader, with rubber bands to hold each hand after it is 
played. The backs are numbered, so that in the over- 
play the trays can be mixed or shuffled without any 
risk of confusing the hands or record. For a single 
table these trays are very convenient, and with their aid 
the game progresses with as much facility as the ordi- 
nary game. When two or more tables use them, the 
explanations that accompany tiiem for this purpose are 
easily understood. When we come across any discovery 
in the interests of whist, it gives us pleasure to recog- 
nize and recommend it. And these trays are as much 
of an advance upon the clumsy and tedious ways in 
vogue of preserving hands as forks were upon fingers. 
We indorse them as indispensable for clubs, and equally 
so for home players, who will find pleasure in duplicate 
whist thus simplified. They are made by Ihling 
Brothers and Everard, Kalamazoo, Mich., and cost, with 
set of counters, and score cards, $5 per set of sixteen 
trays. 



VI. 

Proceedings of the Second Day^s Congress — Interesting 
Letter from Nicholas Browse Trist — " Cavendishes " 
System Recommended. 

'he second clay's session of the Whist Congress con- 
vened at 10 a. m., April 15. The number of dele- 
gates was nearly double that of the first day, and the 
hall was well filled. 

A resolution was adopted that no club shall hereafter 
be represented in the Congress, except by one of its own 
members. The spirit of the rule is that a club cannot 
be represented by proxy, and that a member of two or 
more clubs can represent but one designated club. 

Nicholas Browse Trist, of Orleans, is one of the most 
prominent names in the whist world. He was one of 
the men that every delegate expected to meet at Mil- 
waukee, and it was a source of genuine disappointment 
to everyone wdien it was learned that this distinguished 
authority was unable to be present. 

The following letter from him, which was read by 
United States Commissioner Safford, of Washington, 
D. C, was some compensation : 

To the President and Members of the First American 
Whist Congress : 

Gentlemen : Circumstances not under my control, 
having deprived me of the pleasure of taking part in 
the Whist Congress, I venture to express by letter my 



32 WHIST SKETCHES. 

opinion on two questions, which, I understand, will be 
submitted to you for consideration. 

First in importance is the matter of recommending 
or adopting a text book to be the standard for the rules 
of play, which everybody concedes sho-uld be uniform 
wherever the game is practiced. You probably all 
remember that Mr. James Clay, the finest player of his 
day, said that '^ Whist is a language and every card 
played an intelligible sentence." This card language 
has been gradually evolved through nearly two centuries 
of play and it is to be desired that it should be and 
remain a kind of Whist Volapuk, universally under- 
stood, so that players who meet for the first time may 
comprehend each other's card sentences. This can only 
be accomplished by following but one system of play. 
In order to ascertain which is the best, we must put 
aside national pride and prejudice and turn to the coun- 
try where the game originated. A study of its history 
shows that the rules of play followed by the best 
players in England are based on the experience of many 
years, supplemented, where possible, by calculations 
made by eminent mathematicians, such as Dr. William 
Pole and others. We also find that the result of that 
long experience and of those intricate calculations have 
been embodied in a book by" Cavendish " — the history 
of the origin of which I gave in Harper's for March — 
and that changes made from time to time are introduced 
in the latest editions. Before, however, being definitely 
adopted, such changes or innovations are first proposed 
in the Card Column of the London Field, in which 
they are discussed by the leading authorities on the 
game, who also give them a trial in actual play, and, if 
found satisfactory, they are presented to the whist play- 
ing public, in a tentative sort of way, in an appendix to 
the next edition ; there, they undergo another probation 
before being incorporated in the work as a permanent 



WHIST SKETCHES. 33 

feature of the game. This cautious mode of proceeding 
cannot help but be productive of satisfactory results, 
especially as there are some noted players in England, 
conservative to that extreme, that they oppose all changes, 
and who never fail to assail vigorously any points 
which they think vulnerable in the proposed innova- 
tions, which are consequently pretty well threshed out 
before ado])tion. For ^hese reasons, I consider " Caven- 
dish on Whist ^' to be By far the best practical guide to 
the game. Should it be adopted by the Congress as 
their text book, a step will have been taken which 
would tend to restore to whist in this country that uni- 
formity in the mode of play, which is so much to be 
desired, in order that the fundamental principle of the 
Combination of the partnership's hand may be main- 
tained as a general ruling system. Of course, when I 
recommend " Cavendish," I include any appendix 
attached to his last edition. 

The other question is the adoption of a code of laws. 
It is needless to say that I consider the deduction or 
adding of points, except in cases of revoke, as penalties 
for wliist offenses, to be contrary to the principle on 
which whist laws should be based ; consequently, I 
advise that we again profit by the experience of our 
English cousins. They already have an elaborate code 
of laws, which is authority all over England and in 
many clubs in this country, and which will subserve our 
purposes very well by eliminating from it all matter 
pertaining to the counting of honors, which has been 
almost universally abolished in this country as a blemish 
on a game which claims to be scientific. 

It is probable that some changes also in the mode of 
scoring will be proposed, The English system does 
not seem to be popular, as is shown by the fact that half 
a dozen ways of counting prevail in this country, one 
of which is entirely wrong in principle when single 



34 WHIST SKETCHES. 

games are played without taking into account any points 
scored by the losers. In ray opinion, the game, where 
honors are not counted, should consist of seven points. 
This is the nominal count, being the greatest number of 
tricks which can be made in one hand. It is contrary 
to the general principle of counting, in any game of 
cards, that more tricks can be made in one hand than 
are necessary to win the game. This principle was 
acted upon in the original count in whist, which con- 
sisted of ten points — four by honors and six by cards — 
the most possible, for the game in its incipiency being 
played with forty-eight cards, the four deuces being 
withdrawn from the pack. The points were afterwards 
arbitrarily reduced to five, for the reasons which we 
have all read of in Mr. Clay's book. In the game of 
seven points, single games, and not rubbers, are played, 
and the losers get credit for any points which they may 
have won ; for instance, with four scored they lose but 
three. This is somewhat analogous in its result to the 
English method of scoring. 

The seven point game has the advantage of being 
shorter than the rubber, consequently the players who 
are out have not to wait so long before cutting in. 
Again, that game is akin to long whist, which Clay, 
'^ Cavendish '^ and other authorities pronounce to be a 
superior game to short whist. 

Could not as many as possible of the games at dupli- 
cate whist in the tournament be taken down as played ? 
This could readily be accomplished by having printed 
blanks, to be filled as the hand progresses. It would 
be both very instructive and interesting to analyze them 
afterwards and compare the play. The games could be 
published in pamphlet form, and would doubtless meet 
with a ready sale. 

Let the interest I take in the welfare of whist, which 



WHIST SKETCHES. 35 

I always have at heart, be n)y apology for obtruding my 
views on you. Respectfully, 

N. B. Trist. 

The letter was warmly aj)plauded and referred to the 
Committee on Laws. 

A resolution was discussed and passed that the num- 
ber of delegates each club should be entitled to in a 
Congress should not be restricted, except as to voting. 
The rest of the day's session was given to hearing 
reports from committees, chiefly upon the arrangements 
for conducting contests in duplicate whist between dele- 
gates and members of the Milwaukee Club. In the 
afternoon the contest in duplicate whist occurred to test 
the strength of individual players after Mr. Foster's 
system, of New York. 



VII. 

A Duplicate Contest Between Milwaukee and JEaston — 
Personnel of President Singleton Paine and Winfield 
Smith — A Close Tussely and Easton Wins. 

HE first contest between delegates and Milwaukeeans 
in the nature of a test of the relative strength of the 
system, or method of play in vogue with the first rank 
players of the home club, as against any other method 
of play, took place on the evening of April 15, through 
the acceptance of a challenge match in duplicate by 
the Easton pair from Cassius M. Paine and H. L. 
Smith, representative players of the Milwaukee Club, 
the former its President. 

It will be as fitting a place in these notes as an}^ to 
refer to the distinguished young president of the club, 
but why such a prepossessing man should be or remain 
a singleton puzzleth our whist inference, for he has the 
type of face that a cynic would trust and a woman hwe 
on sight. His must be a case like the popular young 
clergyman's, who, if he takes one of his flock to him- 
self, can count on the rest of the flock as his enemy, 
and as well break camp for another parisii, and Paine 
can't be spared from the Milwaukee Club just yet. 

As one of the graybeards of the club said to us — 
our President, you see, is a youngster, but I think you'll 
admit a very promising one. He is remarkal)ly 
modest, but as studious and persevering as he is modest, 



WHIST SKETCHES. 37 

and possesses an alert and active mind, with an unlimi- 
ted zeal for the game, and he has steadily progressed 
into the very first rank of players. 

Mr. Eugene S. Elliott, the President of the Congress 
said to us : " Our fellows are kind enough to give me 
the credit of the success of the Congress, but in my 
opinion a large share of this credit is due to Mr. Paine, 
who, as President of our Club, entered enthusiastically 
into the scheme when proposed, never objected to any- 
thing that was reasonable, and for several weeks before 
the meeting gave his entire time and attention to caring 
for the details, which, in an affair of that kind, are 
simply enormous. He had his reward, and I think it 
was a rich one, in the result of the championship game.^^ 
- [By this Mr. Elliott means where Mr. Paine stood as 
fourth player in the play off with the three who tied 
for the medal, and led the highest individual record of 
the three by 8 points.] 

" Mr. Paine likes duplicate whist as sincerely as Mr. 
Dick Allen detests it, which emphasizes the fact, that 
probably no two persons were ever put upon such a radi- 
cally antagonistic whist base as Rufus Allen and C. M. 
Paine, yet they are fine players and fine fellows.'^ 

'' We agree with President Elliott, and cipher out 
that he means ^' Dick " is a prince of whist guerrillas, 
and Paine an arrant regular. 

Mr. H. L. Smith is a brilliant writer, and at one time 
edited an able whist department in Yenowine's NewSy 
and he is ranked as one of the very strongest players in 
the West. The soundness and brilliancy of his play 



38 WHIST SKETCHES. 

in this contest gave unqualified evidence of his whist 
ability. 

By reference to the appended score-sheet, it will be 
seen that the game was a remarkably close and even 
one. Out of the sixteen hands, with the overplay 
making thirty-two hands in all, there were nine ties, 
three gains of one point on each side, and one gain of 
three points on the Eastoii side, which made them win- 
ners by the gain in that one hand. 

The Milwaukee team played by the modern Caven- 
dish system with one or two exceptions. They played 
deliberately and thoughtfully, and their whist table 
deportment was a pattern for all players. No manifes- 
tations of any character were made by them during the 
four and a half hours of the play. f 

The Easton pair played strictly by the " G. W. P.^' 
system. One of their gains was made by the much 
abused nine lead from nine, knave and king, through 
the failure of one of the opponents, holding ace and 
queen, to cover w^ith the queen. The Easton's gain of 
three points was by their unblocking and the failure of 
the opponents to unblock the suit when they played the 
hand. 

Mr. Paine is level-headed, logical and observing, and 
he was frank in the statement of his conclusions that the 
Easton players gave closer attention to all the major 
and minor details of the game than they were accus- 
tomed to give. 

This and the contest of teams of four against four, 
under the Orndorif system, were the only duplicate con- 



WHIST SKETCHES. 39 

tests during the Congress. It is worthy of note they 
were both won by the visiting delegates who played 
strictly the " G. W. P.'' system. 



C. M. Pai 


ne 1 






rc. 


S. Boiitcher 


H. L. Smith / 




vs. 


jc. 


D. P. 


Hamilton 


First 


Second 


Gains. 


Number 


Gains. 


First 


Second 


Play. 


Play. 




of Deal. 




Play. 


Play. 


8 


5 




1 




5 


8 


7 


6 




2 




6 


7 


10 


3 




3 




3 


10 


4 


9 




4 




9 


4 


8 


6 


1 


5 




5 


7 


5 


7 




6 


1 


8 


6 


5 


8 




7 




8 


5 


4 


6 




8 


3 


9 


7 


5 


8 




9 




8 


5 


5 


7 




10 


1 


8 


6 


9 


4 




11 




4 


9 


12 


1 




12 




1 


12 


6 


7 




13 




7 


6 


4 


10 


1 


14 




9 


3 


2 


10 




15 


1 


11 


3 


6 


8 


1 


16 




7 


6 


100 


105 
100 


3 




6 
3 


108 


103 
108 



205 Net gain, 3 211 



VIII. 

Communication from the Distinguished Authority, ^' Cav- 
endish '^ — His Views on King Leads and Four Trump 
Signal—^' Cavendish's " Methods with the Whist 
World — R. A. Gurleyj of Denver, Enters an Appear- 
ance^He is Probably the Originator of the Four 
Trump Signal. 

HE whist matter of the Free Press is a subject of 
interest with the whist world generally throughout 
the United States, and it has attracted no little atten- 
tion in other countries. 

Our past and recent discussions of the four trump 
signal, with our position that it is antagonistic to the 
advanced order of play, viz, the plain suit echo, and 
that the two cannot consistently co-exist, has brought 
forth considerable commentary and discussion from a 
number of quarters. Some of this is from such distin- 
guished authority that we shall refer to it especially in 
this article. 

The first is Mr. Henry Jones, " Cavendish,'' of Lon- 
don, whose name and writings are known and accepted 
as authority wherever whist is known. We have had 
occasion to quote him very frequently in our whist 
department, and to follow the evolution of his several 
editions into what is becoming the generally accepted 
order of the higher rank conduct of the game. 

This evolution is not volcanic or of electric sudden- 



WHIST SKETCHES. 41 

ness, but is more akin to the slower growth of our ter- 
restrial geology. "Cavendish" recognizes this, and 
during his long connection with the London Field as 
editor of its whist department, and as the author of the 
numerous books on whist bearing his well known non 
de plume J he has never attempted to force public opinion 
before it was ripe, no matter how absolute his conviction 
that he was right, and the public wrong ; but, with mas- 
terly tact, he takes the public into his confidence, pre- 
sents his arguments upon any new discovery or method 
and asks for criticism for or against. He arouses dis- 
cussion and, therefore, interest, the subject gets ventila- 
tion, analysis and illustration, and the correct conclusion 
is rarely missed. By this politic course cliques and 
friction are avoided, and whist interests are stimulated 
and united — a consummation devoutly to be wished, for 
the rapidly growing whist world. Even so recently as 
in the London Field of the week of May 8, he gives a 
characteristic example of his diplomacy in these regards. 

He is discussing the abandonment of the lead of the 
knave from a head sequence, for the lead of the fourth 
best, on the ground that it lessens the disturbance of the 
informatory character of the knave led from its high 
combinations. 

He presents the arguments that occur to him for its 
abandonment for the fourth best, and approves of the 
fourth best lead, but he asks for further arguments and 
discussion from all sources that have anything to com- 
municate. 



42 WHIST SKETCHES. 

This is the true type of administration in government 
or in whist. 

"Cavendish on Whist" is now in its eighteenth 
edition, and the nineteenth is in hand. 

The eighteenth appendix adopts the new order of 
play, and the principles that the whist world is uniting 
upon. 

The nineteenth appendix's chief feature will be the 
king leads; the king, as advanced whist players know 
and practice, being obsolete as a lead from the old com- 
binations of king ace, and king queen, when there are 
more than four cards in the suit. 

WHAT CAVENDISH WRITES US. 

" Cavendish " writes us under date of May 7 : 

" The appendix on king leads will be rewritten 
(indeed has been), in order to show how number and 
combination led from may always be shown on second 
round of strong suit, doing away with third round 
inferences altogether, and so simplifying." 

In reference to the four trump signal discussed in the 
Free Press, Cavendish writes : 

" As at present advised, I am opposed to four signal, 
for reasons too long to enter into in a letter. 

" The play neutralizes the eflPect of the unblocking 
system, and is therefore favorable to A B^s adversaries — 
as you say, it puts A to a guess. It would therefore be 
useful, not as indicating four trumps, but as puzzling 
the adversaries." 

Mr. R. A. Gurley, of Denver, Col., is another leading 
whistite, who has communicated with us on the four 
trump signal, and we take the liberty of quoting him 



WHIST SKETCHES. 43 

because of his whist ability, and his prominent connec- 
tion with whist authorities. 

He lias had a long and intimate association with 
Nicholas Browse Trist, of New Orleans, the discoverer 
of the fourth best principle, and he has sat with and 
against him and his partner Kennedy at the game 
during a number of years. 

Gurley and his Denver partner. Cherry, carried off 
the second dis-honors of the Milwaukee Congress in the 
great tilt of the home club against all the United States. 
They could not do any better, as the Briggs Brothers, of 
Minneapolis, insisted on carrying off the first — Easton 
and Philadelphia following hard upon for third and 
fourth place. 

Gurley and his associate in adversity have since been 
taking their revenge by knocking everything senseless 
in the shape of whist fiends in the E-ocky Mountains, 
at duplicate whist. 

WHAT TKIST's associate WRITES US. 

He thus wTites the Free Press from Denver, May 7, 
of the four trump signal in plain suits : 

" On the eve of the Tilden-Hayes election, November, 
1876, we played it here for the first time, and I intro- 
duced it into the old Buffalo Club in 1883. 

" I proposed it to my partner, Jacobson, at that time, 
and we played it for years. 

" I'he London Field came out in an article rather in 
its favor two years ago last February, but I have yet to 
learn whether it is best to continue it or not. 1 note 
the Free Press comments upon it, but my views 
remained unchanged, tho' I do not wish to be under- 



44 WHIST SKETCHES. 

stood as supporting it as against the unblocking system. 
I can never recall blocking my partner but three" times 
in eighteen years' play. 

" I think a good whist player will get out of the way 
when he feels that partner is absolutely secure in suit/' 

Brother Gurley is evidently on the fence as to the 
four trump signal, and it remains to be seen whether we 
shall have to blow hioi off his perch with one of those 
gentle Kansas zephyrs. 

We think he would feel happier if he couldn't recall 
blocking his partner's suit even three times in eighteen 
years by the use of the four trump signal. (We know 
little of the veracity of his memory.) But a player as 
full of whist perception and resources as he, would not 
be expected to block his partner by any system, but the 
ordinary mortal at the whist table is not so blest. We 
recall an instance of his grasp in an emergency, when 
he sat with us as partner at the Illinois Club, Chicago, 
on the evening of April 18, against two of its members. 
Trumps were declared against us. He had two small 
trumps and the controlling card of a plain suit in which 
he knew opponents both held cards, and his partner not 
any. He led this master card which his partner trumped 
with his only trump, and gave him a suit which he 
could ruff. He let his partner in again on a plain suit, 
got another ruff, the three joint trumps were made sepa- 
rately and the game was saved, against any other play. 

We shall be glad to have Rocky Mt. Gurley follow 
his first edition on the four trump signal with an 
'^appendix " that is not so rocky. 



IX. 

3Ir. Foster, of New YorJc, sends us a hand played 
between Deshapelles^ Favorite Partnei^, Rheinart, and 
His Partner J Wight, and the Easton Delegates — An 
Interesting Study. 

F. Foster, of New York, the Secretary of the Con- 
gress, was ubiquitous during the session of the 
Whist Congress. He has versatile accomplishments 
outside of his whist, one of which is stenography, and 
daring the tournament play he circulated among the 
players taking notes of the hands and play where 
players of repute or of different systems were engaged. 

As Mr. Rheinart is a noted man, the nestor of the 
Milwaukee Club, and as long as forty-five years ago, a 
favorite partner of the French whist genius, Deschapel- 
les, much interest centred about his style of play, and 
consequently Mr. Foster took down a number of the 
hands played at his table in the contest between Mil- 
waukee and all America. 

One of these hands, with the play, Mr. Foster has 
kindly sent us, and as such records are of interest to the 
whist world, we give it with comments and analysis, 
precisely as we would give it of any other play or hand 
that comes before us. * 

Should Mr. Foster send us a hand of the sitting in 
which Easton made a break, we should ventilate and 
score the bad play exactly according to its deserts. 



46 



WHIST SKETCHES. 



Below is the game referred to : 

THE HANDS. 

f Spodes — 7, 6, 4. 
A J Hearts — ace, k., kn., 7, 6. 
^ ] Clubs— 4. 

l^Diamonds — q., 9, 6, 3. 

f Spades — qu., 10, 9, 3. 
-D J Hearts — 9, 5. 

j Clubs — qu., kn. 8, 5., 

[ Diamonds — k., kn., 8. 

f Spades — k., kn., 8, 2. 
p J Hearts— 10, 3. 
^ 1 Clubs— 9, 6, 3. 

1^ Diamonds — ace, 7, 5, 2. 

r Spades — ace, 5. 
-p. J Hearts — qu., 8, 4, 2. 
■^ j Clubs— ace, k., 10, 7, 2. 

(^Diamonds — 10, 4. 

C. S. Boutcher (D) dealt and turned 2 h. ; W. W. 
Wight (A); C. D. P. Hamilton (C); John Rheinart (B). 
No score, the sitting being for points. 

THE PLAY. 

[The dagger (f) the leader.] 

TRICK 

1 



4- 

4- 





|4i^H 



tA 



A B, 
CD, 1 



WHIST SKETCHES. 



47 



The original lead of the singleton by A is a good 
illnstration of the tactics so popular with these old 
school players of the Milwaukee Club. This order of 
play — or, rather, the absence of order — must invariably 
lose against conventional play. This is absolute, and as 
self-evident as a proposition in Euclid. When order is 
violated the language of the cards becomes unintelligible 
and the intellectual beauties of the game are lost. 



TRICK 

2 



B 



C 







9? ^ 








<^ 






9? ^ 




~~^" 








9? 


9? 






9? 




<p 




WA 










M 







I^t 



A B, 1 
C D, 1 



TRICK 

3 



B 



• 




om^ 








Uu^*^^jm^ 






m^^ 
























"<r 

























tA 



D 



A B, 2 
C D, 1 



48 



WHIST SKETCHES. 



TRICK 
4 



tB 



C 



4. 4. 

4- + I 






A 

"A gets in a little trump." 



TRICK 



C 



B 



O 
♦ 
O 



tA 



D 



♦ o 

o o 



D 



A B, 3 
CD, 1 



A B, 3 
C D, 2 



TRICK 
6 



tc 



o 

o 
o 




o o 

0^0 

o o 



9 9? 



<?> 9 



D 



A B, 3 
CD. 3 



WHIST SKETCHES. 



49 



C reads the queen of clubs with B and the best dia- 
monds with A, and the strength of trumps against them, 
as D shovved but four by the lead of the 2. To return 
the trump would be fatal. The lead of the diamond, 
to be taken by D, who in turij must return a club, 
throwing the lead into B's hand, that he may lead a club 
or a spade — this was C's intent. 



TRICK 

7 



4. 4. 




A 






Dt 



A B, 4 
C D, 3 



TRICK 

8 






4. 4. 
4.^4. 



9 


V 


9 


9? 


9 


9? 



4. , 4^ 
4»*4' 

4.*4. 



D 



A B, 4 
A C D, 4 

A and B each failed to take in the situation here, and 
played as C had hoped they would when at trick 6 he 
led the 5 of diamonds. B should unquestionably have 



50 



WHIST SKETCHES. 



led the 9 of hearts through D, reading the probable 
tenace with A over D. C could not have strength of 
trumps, or he would most likely have returned the 
trump. Had B led the 9 of hearts here, A B would 
have scored two by card. A, however, could still have 
saved the odd from the wreck had he properly trumped 
with the knave. The 6 must lose if C had a trump. 



TRICK 

9 



fc 



<> 

o o 








A B, 4 
C D, 5 



TRICK 

10 



c 



B 







"♦ 








♦ 




♦ 




♦ - 






4 








4. 4. 



Dt 



A B, 4 
C D, 6 

A should have trumped this thirteener, drawn the 
last trump from D, and trusted to B taking the needed 
trick in spades. 



WHIST SKETCHES. 



61 



TRICK 
11 



B 







♦ ♦ 


















L*._* 




© 


Dt 












♦ ♦ 




A B;4 






A 






C D, 7 



D leads the ace of spades to make the odd, as a must 
have just one spade. 



TRICK 
12 



B 








I>t 



A B, 5 
C D, 7 



TRICK 
13 





9 



C D score the odd card. fA 



9? 9 



D 



A B, 6 
C D, 7 



62 WHIST SKETCHES. 

REMARKS. 

By following up the positions arising out of their sin- 
gleton lead in this instance, A B could have made two 
by card against the best play. But, either from inat- 
tention, or from the play being rendered unintelligible, 
by their singleton lead, they failed to grasp the situations. 
By conventional play, A B make two by card, as the 
following analysis shows : 

A C B D 

1 kht 3h 5h 2h 

2 3dt 2d kd 4d 

A shows the ace, knave and others in trumps, with 
four diamonds, as his best suit, and says to his partner : 
" If you have the queen, give it to me ; if not, the best 
you have, and I will finesse knave." 

3 kn h 10 h 9ht 4h 

4 acehf 2 s 3 s 8h 

5..,. 6 df aced 8d 10 d 

6 5 c 9 ct 5 c k c 

7 6h 5d knd q hf 

8 4 s 8 s 9 s ace sf 

9 6 s kn s qu s 5 sf 

C^s finesse is justifiable. B, by negative inference, 
has shown clubs as his suit. The result is, however, the 
same, if C does not finesse. 

10 7h 3 c qu cf ace c 

11 q df 7d 8c '2c 

12 9 df 6 c kn c 7 c 

13 7 sf ks 10 s 10 c 

A B take eight tricks, and have two by card. This 
is intelligible whist ; the other might be termed a game 
at guess, or whist by conjecture. 




X. 

2he Interest taken hy AutJwrities in Free Press Criti- 
cism — 3Ir. Gurley, of Denver, Takes the Floor — He is 
the Father 0/ the Four Trump Signal — He Gives Its 
History, and, Naturally, Tries to See Some Virtue in 
His " Kid'' — Mr.Schwarz Says His Say on the Fad — 
He Agrees with the Free Press, 

"" E are in daily receipt of expressions of interest 
in and appreciation of the series of whist sketches 
appearing in the Feee Press from prominent clubs and 
players throughout the country, with expressions of 
opinions by a number of them upon mooted points. 
Among authoritative sources that have thus favored us, 
are Mr. Henry Jones, ^' Cavendish," of London ; Mr. 
N. B. Trist, of Xew Orleans, the discoverer of the 
fourth best principle ; Mr. Rheinart, of Milwaukee, the 
partner of Deschapelles ; Mr. Gurley, of Denver, (who, 
like Rheinart with Deschapelles, is a favorite partner of 
Trist's) ; Mr. Schwarz and Mr. Herr, of Chicago, the 
presidents of their respective whist clubs ; Mr. OrndorflF, 
of Worcester, Mass., and a number of others. Mr. 
Gurley comes forward with his history of the four 
trump signal in plain suits, and if no one appears to 
dethrone him, the paternity of it will unquestionably 
rest with him in the records of the game. Put that 
will not much matter. Its obituary is written, and the 
green sod and mossy marble are pressing it into oblivion. 



54 WHIST SKETCHES. 

We note that Mr. Gurley admits a doubt of its utility? 
for, if with 15 years' use of it, he is "not certain yet 
of its strength'' there must be an element of that cast 
existing between it and him, which would probably take 
him a decade or two to reconcile with the four trump 
signal side. But Gurley is irrepressible and persistent? 
holding to what he believes a good thing like a snapper 
or bull dog. As Mr. Trist aptly puts it, he wonders if 
there are any grizzlies in the Rocikies, and if Gurley in 
his mountain strolls has ever met them, and if so why 
the bears didn't establish their suit. Mr. Trist knows 
Gurley's bent well enough to know that grizzlies would 
have no show with him in a straight ahead tilt or at 
duplicate. Bears are conventional and Gurley first con- 
fuses them with his four signals and then destroys. We 
give 

WHAT MR. GUELEY SAYS 

and follow it with some brief commentary. 

The four trump signal and its history, in so far as I 
am concerned, is in brief: During the year 1876 there 
w^as considerable rivalry manifested between a few of 
us players in this city. Particularly was this true of E* 
P. Jacobson and self, on one side, and my brother, (C. 
D. Gurley) and John L. Jerome, on the other. We 
had played a sort of neck and neck race for over two 
years, neither deriving much vantage ground. We 
were playing the seven point game. On the evening of 
the Hayes-Tilden election, in November, 1876, Jacob- 
son and self were to meet my brother and Jerome at 
Jerome's house, to have a sitting. On the way up I 



WIIIST SKETCHES. 55 

asked Jacobson if it did not often happen that he held 
four trumps and would greatly desire to play out a 
trump if he could feel certain that partner had four, or 
would be able to echo if only three strong ones — ace, 
kg. and small, or kg., qu-kn. He ans\vered that was 
often the case, and cited many instances where the odd 
trick was lost by adversaries trumping in on our long 
and strong suit, etc., whereas, if he knew I held four 
trumps, he would lead them earlier. I then asked him 
how it would do to make the four trump signal in the 
following manner, viz : To play, in plain suits led by 
others, or partner first, next to the lowest, then next 
hiirher, and afterwards the lowest. 

We agreed on this method, and played it for two or 
tliree months, ere our adversaries discovered just what 
we meant by such play. They noticed the deviation in 
the play, but did not understand it earlier. However, 
after those few weeks, they "got on to us^' and "played 
our game,'' and up to this hour it has been played by 
a dozen or more of our whistites. It 1883, being a 
guest at the Old Buffalo, N. Y., Club, I introduced it 
there, and I understand that some of their strongest 
players adopted it, and continue it to this day. George 
Burrows, who visited this club three years ago, informed 
us that they still played the four trump signal, and 
brought a very high compliment back from them for 
me. It w^as on my general play, and in nowise per- 
tained to the four trump signal. 

Now Mr. Free Press, I am quite unprepared to say 
what I think of it, in face of the unblocking game. 



66 WHIST SKETCHES. 

You cannot get in the four trump signal oftener than 
once in say ten hands, owing, first, to not holding 
exactly four trumps; secondly, because your hand will 
not allow the play. I would not part with an honor 
to show partner my strength. Moreover, if I held but 
four small trumps I would keep the fact concealed. It 
is only to be used when you are quite strong, and would 
lead if you knew partner was fairly strong. Generally 
partner controls the opening of trumps, and he only 
will lead after you have shown you have four, if he has 
four of strength or four weak ones, making eight 
between you. 

One can get in this signal much oftener than you 
would imagine, for it is not frequent. I do not place so 
much stress on the blocking of partner as you fellows 
do. Do you believe that with a first-class partner, he 
would block you once in 500 hands ? My experience 
says decidedly, no ; what is your experience? There 
is a way to throw off partner's command in almost 
every instance, either by leading or trashing on some 
suit in which you are short. Safford laid great stress 
on this " blocking'' and '^ unblocking" system, and far 
beyond what my experience has verified is necessary. 
Our best players are not as yet ready to banish the four 
trump signal for the unblocking system. 

In fact, the four trump signal is an unblocking sys- 
tem, for on second hand you can throw as high as you 
like, leaving your partner with command. Handle this 
as caustically as you like, Mr. Free PresSy for you can't 
make the blood tingle in my veins, in the least, i like 



WITIST SKETCHES. 67 

scliolarally (that's meant for scholarly) crilicistn. I 
enjoy it hugely. 

'Tis possible that the signal was played in the East 
before we adopted it, but I had never heard of it, and 
in all my whist life at other places I never heard of it 
until Trist called my attention to an article in the Lon- 
don Fields in February, 1889, when I was in New 
Orleans. The article supported the play, much to my 
gratification, at that time, for I had put it to Trist, and 
he seemed undecided until he read this article. I do 
not think he uses it, nor have I any opinion of his upon 
the subject. You understand that it is not an 
imperative rule to show the four; it is to be shown 
only when you would like a trump lead if partner is 
fairly strong, and it is owing to this that the control of 
trump lead, under the four signal, rests almost exclu- 
sively with partner. In so far as the date of its birth 
in this locality is concerned, I can support my claim by 
a dozen of our most reputable citizens. I don't care a 
picayune about making any claim for it, however, for I 
am not certain yet of its strength. I do know, how- 
ever, that in hundreds of instances it has given the odd 
trick, and I do not know as it has ever lost the trick. 
It is a stong point when jartner has four high trumps, 
for he then forces you freely — a thing he would other- 
wise hardly start in on with only four trumps. Or, he 
can lead with safety if strong in other suits, or a single 
suit, knowing partner held four. In the absence of 
this information adversaries might get in one or two 
small trumps, partner not daring to lead from four. 



58 WHIST SKETCHES. 

Think about it and give me your conclusions. I am 
satisfied you are antagonistic to it at present, but a little 
investigation may alter your ideas considerably. I'll 
ask you how often have you blocked partner in the 
course of the past ten years ? I will guarantee that you 
can count the times on your fingers. I am simply 
showing that I do not distress myself on this point, for 
I manage my cards more scientifically than to do it. 

1. Mr. Gurley's partner " cited many instances where 
the odd trick was lost by adversaries trumping in on 
our long and strong suit, etc., whereas, if he knew I 
held four trumps he would would lead them earlier.'^ 
An honest confession. But R. Mt. G. and his partner 
must learn that it is best for '' he" or " him '' to lead 
trumps as soon as it is evident that they have a "long 
and strong suit" and not wait for any kind of a trump 
signal, especially one so slow as the " four signal." 
People so swift as these Western hustlers usually are, 
should catch on " to this lively point." 

2. Mr. Gurley lays too much stress upon the unblock- 
ing feature of the " plain suit echo." Unblocking is a 
minor point. In this order of play the value of the 
plain suit echo is that it enables partner to count the 
hands almost absolutely in the second round of the 
suit. The absence of the little card on the second round 
tells a big story — a story full of valuable information 
compared with which unblocking is comparatively value- 
less, and nobody knows this better than Mr. R. A. Gur- 
ley (R. M.) 

3. The '^ plain suit echo'' and the "four signal" 



WHIST SKETCHES. 69 

cannot co-exist ; they conflict, and the play of one neu- 
tralizes the effect of the other. Like tlie Quaker said 
to the horse when he kicked himself into the buck- 
board : "If thee is going to get into this vehicle, I'm 
going to get out ; we can't both ride ! " This is also 
well known to this " Wild West " denizen, who dwells 
upon the fringe of elevated civilization ! 

4. Fathers are naturally fond of and devoted to their 
" kids," and we have no doubt that K. M. G. is the 
father of this wayuard child, and it is natural that he 
should admiringly pat it on the head. But ^' 'twas ever 
thus " — the fittest njust survive. Gurley's " four trump> 
signal " was a good thing in its day, but Mr. N. B. Trist 
some years ago presented the whist world with his 
" plain suit echo," and it must crowd Gurley's " kid " 
to the outside of the whist pickets. 

MR. SCHWAEZ, OF CHICAGO, TAKES THE FLOOR. 

Theodore Schwarz, President of the Englewood Club, 
Chicago, and Secretary of the American Whist League, 
and one of the powerful players of the country, sits 
squarely on the " four signal." He writes the Free 
Press : 

" In regard to four trump signal, I fully agree with 
you. I met the fad in Cincinnati some time ago, as 
j)layed by Zanoni and some of the Cuvier Club mem- 
bers. They call it the ' Sub-Blue Peter.' They have 
also what they call a ' Misery Blue Peter.' 

" I used the same argument there that you do in the 
Free Press, viz : T hat it conflicts with the ' plain suit 
echo.' There is another strong argument against it 
which did not occur to me then, and which you seem to 



60 WHIST SKETCHES. 

have overlooked. Take a club, for instance, like the 
Milwaukee Club, who never use the trump signalsit all, 
and who are backward in leading trumps unless they 
have a strong hand in other suits ; or the fall of the 
cards discloses a strong suit in partner's hand. By the 
time this is developed, one of the adversaries has used 
the four trump signal, and gets the four trumps yanked 
out of his hands for his pains. The four trump signal 
in this case is a good deal like the player who echoes to 
the adversaries' lead of trumps, a violation of the under- 
lying principle of the echo.^' 

We have used this argument of Mr. Schwarz, with 
others, illustrating them by examples in previous Free 
Pi^ess articles. 



XL 

The Dr. Forrest Trophy to he Played for at the Next 
Congress — Miss Theresa Trist on the Bibliography of 
Whist — League Credential Cards — Committee on Per- 
manent League Organization — Code of Laws adopted 
by the Congress — Opinions of the Laws. 

HE Whist Congress convened for its third day's 
session, A pril 16. The members first inspected the 
design of a club trophy, presented by Dr. Milton H. 
Forrest, of the Hamilton Club, Philadelphia, to be 
played for at the next session of the Congress, in 
sets of four from each club, duplicate whist. 

It is a handsome gift, designed by Bailey, Banks & 
Biddle, of Philadelphia, in the form of a silver bowl, 
about fourteen inches in height. The shank is square 
in form and ornamented with the figures of the four 
kings chased in relief. 

The bowl is ornamented with chased figures, and the 
base with four aces in relief. 

It will prove the object of an interesting contest. 

The Congress acted upon and incorporated into its 
proceedings an article by Miss Theresa West, on the 
bibliography of whist, and the list of publications on 
whist literature in the Milwaukee Public Library. It 
comprises about eighty-five publications, and is valu- 
able for reference. A vote of thanks was extended to 
Miss West for the interest taken by her in the game ' 
and in the Congress. 



62 WHIST SKETCHES. 

A committee, through a motion of Mr. Gurley, of 
Denver, was appointed to prepare a credential card of 
certification to delegates in attendance upon the first 
Whist Congress, as a voucher, indorsing them as enti- 
tled to the courtesies of any club in the country. 

Through a motion of Mr. Barney, of Providence, R. 
I., a committee was appointed to adopt some basis of 
organization for future congresses by forming a league 
of all American whist clubs, and clubs in which whist 
is played. 

The afternoon session was given to a tournament after 
I. C. Orndorff's method of duplicate, of Worcester, 
Mass. (which we shall report in a special paper), and to 
the report of the Committee on Rules. 

This committee had a perplexing and by no means 
an easy task. They took as their base the " Club 
Code." These rules are the outcrop of laws and deci- 
sions made to suit the English conduct of the game. 
They bear the marks of discussions that have arisen 
over " fine points" from time to time. They are cum- 
bersome and not in harmony with the trend of Ameri- 
can whist to-day. 

The committee changed some sections of this code, 
and eliminated other sections. Its more prominent 
recommendations were that the game should consist of 
seven points, the trump be turned from the live pack, 
and that the trivial law be stricken out which allows 
the player to ask a partner, who renounces, if he have 
no more of the suit. 

The code of laws, as recommended by the committee. 



WHIST SKETCHES. 63 

was adopted by the Congress, and as we state, the laws, 
as a whole, are not in harmony with the American game 
of Long Whist. 

They are longer by half than necessary, are not free 
from inconsistencies, and are also ambiguous. 

In our opinion they are in the main unfitted to the 
American game of seven points and no honors count. 

A code of laws, concise and simple, would meet the 
requirements of our game. 

A law unaccompanied by a penalty is valueless. The 
laws of long whist are necessarily few — at the most, 
twenty in number. 

To each law a definite and absolute penalty should 
be affixed, and for the violator of the law the penalty 
should invariably be enforced. All penalties should be 
in points, like the penalty for a revoke. 

All such penalties as require the offender to play his 
highest or lowest card of the suit, or to lead from 
another suit called upon, or force him to trump or not 
to trump a trick, &c., <fcc., are, in our opinion, objection- 
able, and the enforcing of this class of penalties disturbs 
or destroys the scientific play of the combinations. 

In lieu of these complicated and unpracticable modes 
of exacting penalties, the substitution of the simple and 
effective penalty of a point for each violation, to be 
enforced after the play of the hand, would go far toward 
reforming breaches of this character. 

A player who violates the law should not, by any 
possibility, escape the penalty. 



64 WHIST SKETCHES. 

Note No. 40 of the code : " If a player called on to 
lead a suit have none of it, the penalty is paid." 

This is not strictly true. The penalty is not paid. 
Tt simply cannot be enforced, and the player may in 
such situations violate the law without fear of punish- 
ment, or, at least, with the hope of escaping it. 

Law 61 — " No conversation shall be indulged in 
during the play of a hand, etc.'^ But suppose a player 
does "indulge," what of it? There is no penalty 
attached. 

Law 59 — " When a trick has been turned and quitted, 
it cannot again be seen until after the hand has been 
played." What happens if a player violates this law ? 

You cannot compel a player to follow suit, or abstain 
from conversation, or from looking at his last trick, but 
you can enforce a penalty for the violation of these laws, 
and thereby abate the class of violations that usually 
occur from inattention and carelessness. 

Our comments are not prompted by a spirit of fault 
finding criticism. 

The session of the Congress was necessarily too brief, 
the subjects before it too comprehensive, and the time 
of the committees too limited to reach finalities that the 
whist world conld unite upon without exceptions. 

The proceedings of the Congress were tentative, as 
they were designed to be, and its prevailing motive was 
that its action should have the benefit of a year's diges- 
tion by thinking whist players. 

Note. — The foregoing, when it appeared in the Free Press, 
was interpreted, and so used from some quarters as a criticism 



WHIST SKETCHES. 65 

hostile to the Congress. The spirit of the article, nor that of the 
articles which preceded it, does not justify such construction. It 
is no more than our opinion of the penal section of the code, 
and of those laws which apply to infringements, but have no 
penalties attached. It further applies to their application to 
long whist, or where each hand is played out for all there is in 
its combinations. It did not seem to us to be the design of the 
First Congress, nor was it practicable for it, to reconcile the vary- 
ing practices of clubs in their conduct of the game. Such an 
endeavor would have brought about an endless discussion, and 
no satisfactory conclusions. If the suggestions in this article, or 
in any of these articles, have value, the League will take action 
upon them at the proper time. 



XII. 

Duplicate After the Orndoyff System — Jlessrs. Jenkins^ 
Hamilton, FisJce and Parry, of the Visitors, Againd 
Paine, Hall, Northrop and Comstock, of the Milwaukee 
Club — The Visitors Win. 

,NE of the most notable events of the Congress was 
the duplicate whist contest, which took place on 
Thursday afternoon and evening. April 16, between a 
quartette of visitors, and a picked team of the Mil- 
waukee club. 

The contest was conducted by Mr. T. C. OrndorfF, of 
the Commonwealth Club, of Worcester^ Mass., and his 
system of duplicate whist was used. Mr. OrndorfF's 
system was given a fair test, and it was a great success- 
It is, in our opinion, the best method yet devised for 
playing duplicate whist in teams of four against four^ 
By this method a record of the play is preserved and 
each player of each team plays an equal number of 
hands with each player of his own team as a partner. 
In this way the relative strength of the contesting teams 
is shown by the total number of points scored. The 
strength of the players as pairs, is made evident, as is 
also the individual rank of the contestants. 

The result of this contest carried with it a peculiar 
significance, as it was a contest between different systems 
of play, the Milwaukeeans adopting the old English or 
" Cavendish " order of leads and follow, and the visi- 



WHIST SKETCHES. 67 

tors playing strictly the American game. As a specta- 
tor facetiously remarked, " It is ^ G. W. P.' versus 
Cavendish.^' 

In justice to the visitors, it must be said that they 
were at a great disadvantage from the fact that they 
were strangers to each other, and consequently 
unfamiliar with the style and quality of the play, and 
peculiarities of their partners, while on the other 
hand the Milwaukeeans w^ere perfectly familiar with 
their partner's play. This advantage is more marked 
among players who do not adhere very closely to the 
recognized conventionalities, and the Milwaukee whist 
fiends do not have a very reverential respect for the 
books. They are independent fellows, these same Mil- 
waukeeans, and delight in doing as they please, but 
don't hug the delusion that they do not play heady 
whist, and that your path to easy victory is strewn w^ith 
roses, for you'll lay over for the next train if you do. 

The cards were pre-arranged, and every hand con- 
tained a problem — that is, there was an opportunity for 
a bright stroke of play in almost every hand. There 
were twenty-four hands and the over-play, making in 
all forty-eight deals; consequently, the total number of 
])oints possible was 624. The result of the match — 
after four hours' play — was that the visitors scored 314, 
to the Milwaukeeans 310, the visitors winning by four 
points. 

The Milwaukee Club was ably represented by four 
of their strongest players — Messrs. C. M. Paine, presi- 
dent of the club, George W. Hall, H. M. Northrop and 



68 WHIST SKETCHES. 

E. G. Comstock. The four visitors were Messrs Jen- 
kins, of the Deschapelles Club, Boston ; C. D. P. 
Hamilton, of the Pomfret Club, Eastou, Pa., and 
Messrs. Fiske and Parry, of Chicago. 

The close result of this contest is conclusive proof 
that it will not do for any team of players, however 
strong, to underrate the quality of play of these Mil- 
waukeeans. If you monkey with the average Milwaukee 
whist player's buzz saw, you will be likened unto the 
inquisitive Celt who tickled the rear of an innocent 
lookino; mule to find out if he ^vould or could kick. He 
found out, without any addition to his personal attrac- 
tiveness, and he was heard to remark when he regained 
consciousness that " I know a blamed sight more than I 
did before.'' If you anticipate a visit to Milwaukee 
carry with you the moral of this little story. It may 
save you a deal of awkward explanation. 

Since preparing the foregoing, Mr. Orndorflf, of \yor- 
cester, has written us of the match played according to 
his system of duplicate, and we take the liberty to pub- 
lish his reference to it. He says : 

" I have looked over the score sheets carefully of the 
twenty-four hands played in Milwaukee, in which Mr. 
Hamilton took part, and have made a complete copy of 
them and put them in book form, which I shall mail 
to the Milwaukee Club, as they were most desirous to 
see a complete record of one of their matches (a thing 
they never had). Please say to Mr. Hamilton that in 
reading over the scores, the play of one hand demon- 
strates the fact that his team won one more trick than 
the first table, so that the actual score stands 314 to 310 



AVIIIST SKETCHES. 69 

in favor of Mr. Hamikon's tean)s. This simply proves 
w'hiit I said to Mr. HaiDilton during the play of the hands, 
* that the score sheets will show who won the tricks, 
even if the scorers should make an error in j)lacing the 
number of tri(;ks won at tiie end of the hand.''' 



XIII. 

Banquet at the PlanJcington House — Two Hundred Whist 
Fiends Asserabled — Speeches by Presidents Paine and 
Elliott, Dr. Dorland, Commissioner Safford, the Irre- 
pressible Pocky Mountain Gurley, Captain Walton^ 
W. W. Wight, R. F. Foster, and the Rev. Judge Gilson. 

'he banquet given by the Milwaukee Club to their 
guests on the evening of April 16, at the Plank- 
ington House, comprised a notable gathering of distin- 
guished men. It is perhaps as appropriate a place as 
any in these sketches, to refer, in a general way, to their 
" composite picture," as President Elliott w^ould term it. 

Most of the delegates who travelled with trunks were 
in sprig tail uniform, but this did not detract from the 
effect of the " composite." They would have looked 
like those born to rule, in the full dress of equatorial 
Africa. 

There were hard upon 200 whist fiends lined up at the 
beautifully appointed tables, and the best opportunity 
was afforded to see them as a body, and, as we have 
indicated, it is exceptional to see as intellectual and dis- 
tinguished a body of men gathered at any convention. 

Numerically, the professions of law and medicine 
were more largely represented, and railroad officials, 
bankers and business men made up the remainder of the 
quota. No such body of men ever came together for a 
more disinterested purpose than gathered under the ban- 



WHIST SKETCHES. 71 

ner of the " First American Whist Congress." There 
were no axes to grind, no personal aims to subserve, and 
if there had been they would have sunk in the Congress 
with the alacrity of lead in water. The Congress was a 
body of gentlemen from all sections of the country, 
drawn to Milwaukee by a lodestone that had for its vir- 
tue but an unselfish devotion to the interests of whist. 
Cliques, convention-strategy, and wire pulling, were 
foreign to its spirit. It was stronger in ability than 
political, and more disinterested in motive than ecclesi- 
astical conventions. 

President Paine was master-of-ceremonies at the ban- 
quet. On either side of him were seated the Hamilton 
and PoQifret Club delegates. 

Eugene S. Elliott responded to the first toast — '' The 
First American Whist Congress" — and he made a 
brilliant and concise address on the history of the Con- 
gress and whist, seasoned with delightful humor. His 
genial nature radiated upon his brother fiends like the 
sweet influences of a meadow clover field in June. 

Dr. Dorland, of Chicago, discoursed on the " Presi- 
dent of the United States " in a way that Mr. Harrison 
would be pleased w-ith, and at its close, Mr. Gurley^ 
of Denver, moved that the President be corraled for the 
next banquet. 

Mr. Satford, the Attorney of the Inter-State Com- 
missioners of Washington, D. C, discussed " Our 
Guests" in his genial, appreciative way — a way that 
was fertile of merriment for its subjects. 

The irrepressible Rocky Mountain Gurley followed 



72 WHIST SKETCHES. 

upon the same subject, and his epigramatic sentences 
were electric and full of ozone. (The compositor will 
probably set this up " benzine/^ if he be not watched, 
and this would be a libel on Gurlej^ and his stirring 
speech.) 

Mr. Gurley also stole a march on Mr. Kimball, of 
the Hamilton Club, and was the sponsor of the Congress 
in thanking the ladies of Milwaukee for the use of their 
beautiful athenseura for the session of the Congress. 

Captain Walton, the veteran army officer, of Phila- 
delphia, also brought in a postscript on " Our Guests " 
in a terse, effectiv^e, witty style, which kept the table in 
a roar. 

W. W. Wight, when he was telling the delegates, in 
his bright way, what he knew about Milwaukee, didn't 
look a bit like one of that clique of fiends who sat with 
Rheinart, and who, with Dick Allen, the Rev. Judge 
Gilson, Comstock and Chandler, by their lead of single- 
tons and other infinite versatilities, buried Easton, Phila- 
delphia and Minneapolis, respectively 33, 20 and 39 
fathoms deep, to say nothing of the Gurley Rocky 
Mountain invincibles, 34 fathoms,) in the tourney of 
Milwaukee against all America. » 

R. F. Foster, of New York, the indefatigable secre- 
tary of the Congress, brought the banqueters down to 
gravity and attention by his serious and very interesting 
history of " A Pack of Cards," with their numerous 
peculiarities. 

The Rev. Judge Frank Gilson, himself the prince of 
cranks, is credited with the brightest after-dinner speech 



WHIST SKETCHES. 73 

ever made in ^lilwaukce. AVe cannot answer for this 
in Milwaukee's brilliant coterie, including tlie Rev. 
Judge himself, but what he essayed on *^ Whist Cranks," 
was in turn humorous and pathetic, and at all times 
eloquent. His idea of a true crank was a man who 
would rather play his hand properly than be President, 
and his ideal he who would not find the six months' 
polar day too long for his fav^orite game. 

President Elliott closed his remarks with the hope 
that his brother whistites would play their game of life 
so well that when the Angel of Death gave the dread 
trump signal they would be ready to sound the echo 
with the promptness of veterans. 

The Rev. Judge Gilson used this in his speech, 
cleverly countering on it by saying there was no echo to 
the last trump signal. 

In comparison with most other conventions at ban- 
quets, it was noteworthy testimony to the composition 
of the Whist Congress, that, with all the vats of the 
great breweries of Milwaukee, and the vineyards of 
sunny France to boot at its beck, not one of its mem- 
bers became, even in the slightest degree, exhilerated. 



XIV. 

Closing Proceedings of the Congress — Commissioner 
Saffbrd^s Resolution on Stakes — Permanent Organisa- 
tion of the League — Election of Trist and '' Cavendish ^' 
as Honorary Members — Resolutions of Respect to the 
Milwaukee Club, President Elliott, Stenographer 
Goodwin and Secretary R. F. Foster — Adjournment, 

jn[;1| R. A. G.SAFFORD,of the United States Inter-State 
(^^flj Commission, of Washington, D. C.,and represent- 
ing tlie several clubs in that city, of which be is a member, 
introduced a resolution which voiced the sentiment of 
the whist world to a main extent, namely that it was a 
game containing within itself resources of intellectual 
recreation that are not dependent upon stakes or wagers 
to add zest to it. Outside of the moral phase of the 
question, this is the fact, and real lovers of the game do 
not require a stake, however insignificant or otherwise, 
to increase tlie stimulus. Its own infinite resources are 
ample in themselves, and a money consideration detracts 
from the higher order of its pursuit. 

The custom of placing a stake, generally the small 
one of a shilling a corner, is an old English one, and it 
is followed, but to a limited extent, in this country, in 
general clubs. But in clubs organized for and devoted 
mainly to whist, the practice is usually not allowed. 

Mr. Safford's resolution is as follows : 

Resolved, That the Fii'st American Whist Congress, 
while it does not assume to dictate to the players of the 



WHIST SKETCHES. 75 

game of whist whether or not such players shall lay 
wagers upon the result of the game, hereby declares 
itself to be of the opinion that betting on the result of 
the game by players or outsiders is contrary to good 
morals, tends to injure the game and to deteriorate the 
style of the play. 

The resolution was adopted. 

We could comment upon several aspects of stakes in 
connection with whist, but it is not necessary. The 
resolution covers the pith of the reasons. The practice 
is exceptional with the lovers of the higher order of 
whist, and the less skillful have no difficulty in finding 
games more congenial for the purpose than with a game 
where the unskillful are at a disadvantage precisely in 
ratio to the measure of their weakness against strength. 

Whist, thus, is naturally lifted out of the list of 
games that tempt to wagers, into a dignity that has 
rewards compared to which gold is but dross. 

The last day of the Congress, Friday, April 17, was 
occupied mainly with permanent organization. 

Chairman Barney ^s report (of the Narragansett Club) 
was unanimously adopted. It was substantially as fol- 
lows : 

That the organization shall be known as " The Ameri- 
can Whist League." 

That clubs represented at the Congress that shall 
adopt, as a standard of play, the code of laws adopted 
by the Congress, and assent to the constitution, shall 
constitute the charter members of the league. 

Any reputable whist club, by doing likewise, may. 



76 WHIST SKETCHES. 

with the approval of the Executive Committee, become 
a member of the league. 

The annual assessment of each club belonging to the 
league shall be $5. 

The remainder of the constitution designates the 
duties of the officers, and provides that a meeting of 
the league shall be held annually; that its officers shall 
hold office for one year; that a club belonging to the 
league shall send as many delegates as it desires, but no 
person shall represent more than one club ; and that 
propositions to amend the code of laws, or the constitu- 
tion, must be approved by two-thirds of the clubs con- 
stituting the league. 

Mr. Barney moved that Mr. Nicholas Browse Trist, 
of New Orleans, be elected an honorary member of the 
League, which was unanimously adopted. 

Mr. Foster, of New York, then proposed Mr. Henry 
Jones-, "Cavendish," as an honorary member of the 
league. The esteem felt for the distinguished English 
whist authority in this country was marked by his 
unanimous election by a rising vote. 

Recognition was made of the stenographer's (Prof. 
Henry Goodwin) efficient work by an unanimous vote 
of thanks. Prof. Goodvvin worked all day at the 
sessions of the congress, and then assisted in their work 
at night during the evenings and as late as 3 o'clock in 
the morning. Without his aid it would have been 
impracticable for the committees to have finished the 
duties before them in the limited time at their disposal. 

Resolutions submitted by Mr. Gurley, of Denver, 



WHIST SKETCHES. 77 

were cordially received and passed with enthusiasm. 
These were in recognition of the disinterested zeal of 
the Milwaukee Club for \vhat they had accomplished 
toward uniting the whist clubs of the country into one 
common body, and in its emphatic success in promoting 
the substantial interests of the gentleman's royal game. 

Recognition was made in addition to the club hospi- 
talities, to the personal courtesy and generous attentions 
of the entire membership of the Milwaukee Club to the 
delegates. 

Special thanks were awarded to Eugene S. Elliott for 
the high dignity and diplomatic and entirely unbiased 
manner in which he presided over the deliberations of 
the congress, and to the secretary, R. F. Foster, for the 
great interest he manifested in its success. 

The Dr. Forrest trophy (previously described in these 
notes) was then discussed. It was decided that the 
league should contest for the prize, and by teams of 
four. The details for the contest were left for the 
Executive Committee to arrange. 

After some further transactions of routine details the 
congress adjourned with three cheers for The First 
American Whist Congress. • 



XV. 

After the Adjournment — The City of Milwaukee — Its 
Homes and Industries — Pabst^s Great Brewing Plant 
— No Fiends in Sight but Presidents Elliot and Paine. 

HE affairs of the congress and incidental contests 
in the interval of its sessions, so occupied the 
strangers within the gates of Wisconsin's capital city 
that no time whatever was diverted to sight-seeing. 
The fiends clung to their whist and when Friday night 
saw the close of the congress, they left for their horues 
on Saturday. 

The Easton delegates, however, took a drive about 
the beautiful city before leaving it. Milwaukee, like 
other important cities of the West, has its lake stand- 
point of picturesque effect and its Lake Side park. The 
stranger will note also the cheerful appearance of the 
residences and buildings, due to the soft creamy colors 
of their local bricks. The city was located as a trading 
post by a Frenchman, (Solomon Junean,) but its trend 
has been distinctly German, and three-fourths of its 
210,000 population is of German derivation. Though 
Milwaukee has the best harbor in the lake system, with 
exceptional railroad facilities, its superior advantages as 
a manufacturing and business centre have been less 
advertised than those of any point of like consequence 
in the West. Notwithstanding this, its manufacturing 
industries aggregate about $35,000,000 annually, and it 



WHIST SKETCHES. 79 

is one of the foremost manufacturing cities of the West. 

Its chief product is, of course, its superior whist fiends, 
who will stand off the earth in that department. 

Its brewing interests follow for about $10,000,000 
annual production, its leather tanning about $5,000,000, 
its iron manufacture about $4,000,000, its meat packing 
industry is important, and its mills have a capacity of 
about 6,000 barrels of flour daily. 

Milwaukee has been made known more by its famous 
beer, which reaches all the world's markets, than 
through any other souice ; but there has been a recent 
organized association to advertise its advantages as a 
manufacturing standpoint and business center. It has 
unrivalled resources of location and trans})ortation for 
these purposes, and, enterprising and prosperous as the 
city is, it has a greater future ahead of it. 

All sight-seers in Mihvaukee naturally include its 
great brewery, and we were no exception. Our visit to 
the Pabst Brewing Company's plant was necessarily a 
brief one, yet it did not prevent the noting of the prom- 
inent features of the gigantic establishment whose 
property and product constitute the largest brewing 
industry in the vvorld. The company's buildings cover 
ten acres, its floor space about thirty five acres. Its 
power is furnished by a 600-horse power Corliss engine. 
Its ice machines produce the equivalent in cold of 
146,000 tons of ice a year. This is conveyed to its 
required channels by 175 miles of pipe. 

The consumption of material for the current year of 
1890 was IJ million bushels of malt, 2J million pounds 



80 WHIST SKETCHES. 

of rice, 820,000 pounds of hops and 26,000 tons of 
coal. 

The annual cooperage is about 1,900,000 packages of 
various sizes. Its glass packages cover 15,000,000 
bottles and 16,000,000 corks. The latter cost $80,000. 

The number of emyloyes at the main plant is about 
fifteen hundred, of which three hundred are women. 

The sales during the year were 653,265 barrels. The 
full capacity of the brewery is 1,500,000 barrels a year. 

Fifteen million bottles of the beer were shipped to 
all parts of the civilized world. In foreign districts it 
is crowding the British brews hard for first place. 

Its great vats average about a thousand barrels each. 

Forty-five barrels a day are consumed by the 
employes. They average about thirty-three glasses per 
day to a man. His average life is sixty-six years. 

The brewery is equipped with all of the advanced 
scientific appliances to insure a perfect product. The 
methods of handling (direct through an underground 
pipe line from the storage cellars to the bottling depart- 
ment) to prevent the escape of carbonic acid gas and 
preserve the life of the beer are interesting and effective. 
The high and uniform standard of the beer, its absolute 
purity and fine flavor are the qualities that have won for 
it its substantial reputation. Apart from its use as a 
beverage, it has established for itself a trade from a 
sanitary standpoint, as a tonic, that forms no small part 
of its business. Physicians prescribe it with confidence 
in its uniform quality and purity. 

Another extensive Milwaukee brewing plant is 



WHIST SKETCHES. 81 

Sohlitz's, who also have a large branch in Minneapolis. 

It has not been the purpose in these sketches to 
deviate much from subjects akin to whist, but it is due 
to the home of this strong association of whist players 
to refer, if but incidentally, to the enterprise and 
substantial character of its citizens, and to the many 
advantages their city possesses to induce judicious 
capitalists to establish industrial enterprises there. 

The character of Milwaukee's water and railroad 
advantages compared with those of other western cities, 
mark that her true growth is yet before it. 

We left its hospitalities with regret at eleven o'clock, 
A.M., on the 18th of April, 1891, and the only whist fiends 
in sight were the two presidents, Eugene S. Elliot and 
Cassius M. Paine. 



CAVENDISH'S LATEST. 




AMERICAN LEADS SIMPLIFIED. — SOMETHING FOR 
WHIST PLAYERS TO READ. 

[R. Henry Jones, "Cavendish," has sent us his 
latest publication, " Whist— American Leads 
Simplified," published by De LaRue & Co., London. 
In his introduction, " Cavendish " says ; 

"American Leads have now (1891) been subjected to 
the consideration of whist players for about 8 years. 
At present two systems of leading are current. This 
state of affairs cannot be regarded as satisfactory, and 
it appears to the author that the time will soon arrive 
when one system must be adopted to the exclusion of 
the other. 

" The following simple scheme of leading from high 
cards is submitted to the whist players of the day for 
opinion and criticism, 

" Detailed arguments in its favor will be found in 
* Whist Developments ' 4th ed. 

" On the first appearance of American Leads, instruc- 
tions were given, in some cases, as to the card to lead on 
the third round of a suit, in order to complete the 
information as to the combination led from. 

"The object now aimed at is to convey all the requir- 
ed information on the first and second rounds of a suit. 

"The points respecting which the third hand has 
to be informed are two : 

" 1. The nature of the combination led from. 

" 2. The number of cards led from." 

We reprint Cavendish's introductory in full because 



WHIST SKETCHES. 83 

it states his subject and motive simply and clearly. 
With his usual policy and tact he submits his scheme to 
the " Whist players of the day for opinion and criticism." 

Cavendish is fully aware that whist is a scientific 
pursuit, and his perception of which is or is not a better 
method is as acute as anyone's, and while he may be 
absolute in his conviction as to what constitutes the 
better method, he recognizes that whist is a pursuit of 
relaxation, not of business, and that its intellectual 
devotees are not like schoolboys, to be whipped into line 
by '' Authority/' Authorities are not infallible, and 
not beyond gaining light through amicable discussion. 
But when their light is the true light they can more 
successfully work for its adoption through modesty than 
arrogance. The better light is by no means the only 
light, and some old-fashioned people will stand by gas 
rather than have electricity crammed down their throats. 
And so it is with advanced whist system. 

** Cavendish " in the present work gives the American 
system of leads in a concise and clear form, made 
clearer by whist type diagrams of each combination 
discussed. 

We shall not go into the details of these leads, as 
their principles are well known to advanced players. 
Their base is, as original leads, the ace, the queen and 
the knave are made to designate five or more in suit 
(with the combinations slated that are exceptions), and 
the second lead gives further testimony of the quality 
of the combination and numerical value of the suit. 

The king is relegated to his position of showing not 



84 WHIST SKETCHES. 

more than four in suit, one of his retinue being the ace 
or queen Ten led originally, shows king, knave, with 
one or more small cards (including the nine as a small, 
card). 

Nine led originally, shows ace, queen, ten ; or ace, 
knave, ten, four cards in suit. In case the nine is led 
originally, or any other lower card, it is the fourth best. 

The foregoing is what " American Leads Simplified '^ 
embodies. 

The system is in line with Trist and Ames, but 
diifers from " G. W. P." mainly in the nine lead in 
the two above-named combinations, " G. W. P.'s '' 
special lead of the nine requiring them to be opened 
with the ace. 

There is no material difference in American whist 
principles. Neither is the difference in the systems of 
leads practiced material. 

The trend of American whist practice is to simplify 
the system and leads. 

" Cavendish " is recognized as a cosmopolitan 
authority on whist. In America, his several works on 
the subject are accepted as authority. The recent First 
American Whist Congress recommended " Cavendish's " 
18th appendix as a system of leads. 

His present little work and table of American leads 
will therefore be regarded as " official.'' 

In closing. Cavendish says : *' The mode of leading 
here set forth is recommended to the consideration of 
advanced players, assuming always that the leader's 
partner is himself an advanced player. 



WHIST SKETCHES. 85 

" It is further assumed that the lead is origioal, and 
that the original leader always opens liis strongest suit/' 

We recommend Brother " Stanliope/' who criticised, 
in the July number of Whist^ the Free Press criticism 
of the original lead of a " sneak ^' in the Rheinart- 
Wight, Hamilton-Boutcher game, at Milwaukee, to 
ponder over this last paragraph of Cavendish, and see 
if he does not cipher out that the spirit of the American 
system, as interpreted by Cavendish, is based on the 
integrity of the original lead showing the strongest 
suit. 

** American Leads Simplified '^ is on sale at Bren- 
tano's, Union Square, New York. 



Life is a gaime of whist. From unseen sources 
The cards are shuffled and the hands are deaUt 

Blind are our efforts to control the forces 

That, though unseen, are no less strongly felt. 



WHIST SKETCHES 



PART SECOND 



Sketches of the Clubs attending The First American 

Whist Congress and of their Leading Players. 

The Whist Lives of " Cavendish " and 

N. B. Trist. Reminiscences of 

James Clay, etc. 




NICHOLAS BROWSE TRIST. 



I. 

NICHOLAS BROWSE TRIST. 

Sketch of his Life and Whist Career — His Little Squad 
of Good Flayers, L. A. Bringier, his Brother, N. P. 
Trist, W. J. Hare and J. M. Kennedy — litis Associa- 
tion with '^Cavendish'' — The American Treads Episode — 
Trisfs Club — Its Tournamerd Play — The Origin of 
Dxiplicate Whist — First Flayed in America by Trist 
Ten Years Ago — By ^' Cavendish " Thirty-Four Years 
Ago — '^ Cavendish's^' Record of it — Trist Defines a 
First Rank Flayer — One of Trist' s End Flays. — The 
New Orleans Chess, Checker and Whist Club — Trist's 
Whist Associates — Trisfs Personality and an Estimate 
of his Whist Temperameyd and Aptitudes. 

Q^JicHOLAS Browse Teist was born in 1835 in the 
^1^ State of Louisiana on one of the sugar plantations 
of his maternal grandfather. His father's family hap- 
pened to settle in Louisiana from the fact that his 
grandfather (the only child of an English officer who 
came to America with his regiment before the revolu- 
tionary war, was captured by a Philadelphia girl and 
settled in this country) was appointed first collector of 
the port of New Orleans by President Jefferson when 
Louisiana was purchased from France. His eldest son, 
Trist's father's only brother, w'ho married Jeffer- 
son's granddaughter, is not entirely unknown in the 
history of the United States, having negotiated the 



90 WHIST SKETCHES, 

treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo with Mexico after the 
war with that country. 

Trist was educated in this country and in Germany, 
and was admitted to the Louisiana bar in 1859. He 
still practices his profession in New Orleans, but he 
gives his main attention to the notarial business, which, 
under the civil law prevailing in that State, is very 
different as regards its nature — which is complicated — 
and its responsibilities — which are great — from that sort 
of business in the common law States. Trist is one 
who persists that his whist life has not been an eventful 
one from the fact that there are no rival whist clubs in 
his city against which to measure skill in friendly 
contests, and because he has not had the chance to play 
whist out of New Orleans with friends of recognized 
force. From his standpoint, this may apply to an 
extent to his mere personal practice of the game. But 
in its broader sense it can have no bearing, as his 
contributions to the development of correct whist prin- 
ciples, and his influence on whist practice, give his name 
first place in the whist history of tHis generation in 
America. 

Over twenty years ago Trist noted the faulty, careless 
way in which whist was played in his city,and saw how 
its resources were unobserved and squandered, and he 
procured the best whist literature of that day and 
prevailed on some of his friends to learn scientific whist 
with him. They did not have the opportunity to play 
regularly, but nevertheless turned out a little squad of 
good players, among them L. A. Bringier, a maternal 



WHIST SKETCHES. 91 

uncle of Trists, N. P. Trist, his brother, W. J. Hare 
and J. M. Kennedy, all native Louisianians. Thej 
were both good players and good company, and their 
whist sittings were a source of great enjoyment. They 
are scattered now, seeking better pastures in other 
States, but their names are well-known on the list of 
higher rank whist players. 

About ten years ago Trist began a correspondence 
with '' Cavendish," which has been kept up ever since 
with but little intermission, which has proved a source 
of mutual pleasure and profit, and the world has had 
the benefit of odd bits of it through the press. During 
this period Trist has contributed considerable interesting 
matter in the form of illustrated whist hands and articles 
on current whist topics to the London Field. 

The American Leads episode he gave to the world in 
Harper^ s Magazine of March, 189L 

He evolves the history of the fourth-best rule, with 
the discussion of it between him and Cavendish. 

It is one of the most important and interesting papers 
on whist yet published in America. 

From his fourth -best principle Mr. Trist formulates 
the rules for American Leads as follows : 

"L When you open a strong suit with a loto card, 
lead (he fourth- best. 

^'2. When you open a strong suit with a high card, 
Jind next lead a loio card, lead the original fourth-best, 
ignoring in the count any high card marked in your hand. 

"3. When you remain with two high indifferent cards, 
lead the higher, if you opened a suit of four ; the lower, 
if you opened a suit of more than four. ^' 



92 WHIST SKETCHES. 

As that part of rule 2 which calls for the lead of the 
fifth-best when a strong suit is opened with a high card, 
and the next lead is a low^ card, is not generally known 
to followers of the fourth-best rule, we quote Mr. Trist's 
comments upon it from his paper in Harper's: 

''The king being no longer led from more than four 
cards, we may take suits headed by the ace as the type 
of the long suit opened from the toj), because it is the 
one most frequently held. 

" Now, in droi)ping from the ace to the original fourth- 
best there always remains in the leader's hands two 
cards intermediate in value between the ones led to the 
first and second rounds ; therefore, in order to obtain 
analagous results in the opening of the king, queen, 
more than four suits, the queen should be followed with 
the original fourth-best, ignoring the king in the count, 
because it is marked in leader's hand by the nature of 
the lead. 

EXAMPLE. 

Not Counted. First Lead. Second Lead. 

From kg. qu. ^^ % 5 

From kg. qu. 8, 6 5 3. 

From kg. qu. 8, 6 5 3, 2. 

" Hence Rule 2 is herein formulated so a§ to be 
general in its application ; heretofore it has been given 
without the last clause."- 

Trist's club (The Chess, Checker and Whist Club of 
New Orleans) appropriates every year a certain sum for 
prizes for whist tournaments. He has taken part in 
eight of these tournaments and his partners and himself 
have been prize-winners in seven. 

The result of the tournament of 1882, in which 
Kennedy and Hare captured the first prize and Bringier 



WHIST SKETCHES. 93 

and Trist the second, gave rise, probably, to the first 
duplicate contest ever played in this country. It came 
to pass in this way. The defeated contestants kept 
hinting that ^^ big luck " had been the main cause of the 
winners^ success. The four named winners, however, 
were confident that luck was not the controlling reason 
of their victories, and that their play would beat the 
play of any team which could be found in the club. 

Trist had read in Cavendish's Card Essays about an 
experiment of the overplay of hands and he suggested 
to his three friends to challeno;e anv four members of 
the club to play, for a prize, twenty-four hands, which 
were to be overplayed. The challenge offered the odds 
of eight points ; each side to be credited with all tricks 
made by it. The challenge was posted, but excepted 
therefrom two strong players on account of the odds. 

It was accepted and the match was played in July of 
that year with the following result : 

Trist's team scored 321 tricks. 

The opponents scored 303 tricks. 

The result showed pretty clearly to those who had 
charged their previous shortage to a bad run of cards, 
that it was due to the character of play they encountered, 
and not to big luck or bad luck on one side or the other. 

So far as any reports show, the above contest nine 
years ago in New Orleans is the first appearance of 
duplicate whist in America. 

The accompanying extract from " Cavendish's Card 
Essays '^ is the article Mr. Trist refers to as the one that 
suggested the idea of duplicate whist to him : 



94 WErtST SKETCHES. 

'^ In the latter part of the winter of 1857, during an 
after-dinner conversation, it was remarked by some of 
the party that whist is a mere matter of chance, since 
no amount of ingenuity can make a king win an ace, 
and so on. 

" This produced an argument as to the merits of the 
game ; and as tw^o of the disputants obstinately main- 
tained the original position, it was proposed to tost their 
powers by matching them against tw^o excellent players 
in the room. 

"To this match, strange to say, the bad players 
agreed, and a date was fixed. 

" Before the day arrived it was proposed to play the 
match in double, another rubber of two good against 
two bad players being formed in an adjoining room and 
the hands being played over again, the good players 
having the cards previously held by the bad ones and 
vice versa, the order of the play being, of course, in every 
other respect prCvServed. 

" The difficulty now was to find two players suffici- 
ciently bad for the purpose ; but two men were found, 
on condition of having odds laid them at starting, which 
was accordingly done. 

" On the appointed day a table was formed in room A, 
and as soon as the first hand was played the cards were 
re-sorted and conveyed into Room P. There the hand 
was played over again, the good players in Room B 
having the cards that the bad players had in Room A. 
At the end of the hand the result was noted for 
comparison, independently of the score, which W'as 
conclucted in the usual way. Thirty-three hands were 
played in each room. In room A the good players held 
very good cards and won four rubbers out of six ; in 
points, a balance of eighteen. In Room B the good 
players had, of course, the bad cards. They played 
seven rubbers with the same number of hands that in 



WHIST SKETCHES. 95 

the other room had played six and they won three out 
of the seven, losing seven points on the balance. The 
diiferoncc, therefore, was eleven points, or nearly one 
point a rubber in favor of skill. 

" A comparison of tricks only, showed some curious 
results. In seven of the hands the score by cards in 
each room was the same. In eighteen hands the balance 
of the score by cards was in favor of the superior 
players ; in eight hands in favor of the inferior. In 
one of these hands the bad players won two by cards at 
one table and three by cards at the other. 

" The most important result is that at both tables the 
superior players gained a majority of tricks. In Room 
A they won on the balance nineteen by tricks; in Room 
B they won two by tricks. 

'' Jt will be observed that this experiment does not 
altogether eliminate luck, as bad play sometimes succeeds. 
But by far the greater part of luck, viz : that due to 
the superiority of winning cards, is by the plan described 
quite got rid of." 

From December, 1889, to September, 1890, Mr. Trist 
edited the whist column of the Spirit of the South, now 
defunct. 

Mr. Trist is wont to say he hopes he did not help to 
kill it. 

In his conversations on whist Trist, while he does not 
deny that he knows something of the theory of the 
game, he will not allow that he is a player of the first 
rank. He says, that as in chess, the number of players of 
first rank is confined to narrow limits. He defines a 
first-rate player as one that must have an abnormally 
retentive memory ; be able to draw inferences correctly 
and quickly, and then have the judgment necessary to 



96 



WHIST SKETCHES. 



make proper use of the real position of the cards as 
determined by the exorcise of the above faculties ; or 
play, on their assumed position when playing to the score. 

Mr. Trist says he has had occasionally the opportunity 
to play the *' grand coup," and that every attentive 
player can do it, only this position does not occur often. 

The following is one of Trist's *' end plays " which 
has been preserved. It is a tenace position that not 
infrequently occurs in one form or another and is mostly 
sacrificed by inattentive players, but Trist is not given 
to that heedless sort of whist perception : 

















^^^' 

9?^ 

^m^ 

c?*^^ 





(Thirteenth) 



c 



B 



D 




o o foTO 

o c ^ 
O O 



O 

o 

o o 



C and B are "not in it," being exhausted of trumps 
-diamonds. 

C led knave of spades. 
D trumped with the 8. 
A played 10 of hearts. 
D led queen of diamonds. 



WHIST SKETCHES. 97 

A played 4 of diamonds, thus remaining with the 
tenace and making two tricks. 

Trist's club, " The New Orleans Chess, Checkers and 
Whist Club,'' was organized in Julr, 1880, with about 
30 members, and incorporated on the 13th of February, 
1882. 

The only games then allowed were those named in 
the title of the club and no money stakes were allowed. 
The dues were seventy-five cents per month, in after 
years raised to one dollar. 

From its small beginning the club has grown into its 
present full membership of seven hundred, with over 
two hundred applicants registered. In 1887 the club 
house was totally destroyed by fire, but it was rebuilt in 
much finer style and the dues raised to |20.00 per 
annum, a small sum for all the comforts afforded. The 
barrier was also removed from playing for money 
considerations, but the governing committee restricted 
stakes to narrow limits, twenty-five cents a point being 
the maximum allowed for whist. 

\^'ith its large membership the club lost its distinctive 
features as a chess and whist club. 

Its seven hundred members includes now but about 
forty whist players, and of these only about one^half 
play the game habitually. This little circle of strong, 
players adopts Cavendish as its authority, and it is 
giving a voice to some of the Milwaukee rules. 

Mr. Trist considers his election as honorary member 
of the Whist League the crowning event of his whist 
career. 



98 WHIST SKETCHES. 

Probably no whist club of this country or the old 
world ever boasted of a more formidable " quartette '* 
of whist players than the New Orleans Whist Club did 
in its palmy days, when N. B. Trist, L. A. Bringier, 
J. M. Kennedy and \Y. J. Hare composed its leading 
w^hist members. 

Mr. Trist is the only one of this number now left, all 
the others having gone to new fields to cast their 
fortunes therein. 

Mr. Kennedy was the last to leave New Orleans, 
having removed to Spokane Falls in the summer of 1889, 

It was with feelings of mingled regret that Mr. Trist 
saw the last one of his life-long partners bid adieu to 
the land of his nativity, and since then he enters the 
club with less buoyancy of spirit than in the halcyon 
days w^hen he could count on the game being played in 
all its completeness. With Kennedy as his partner he 
felt that no salient point of the game would be 
over-looked. The long years of play together made 
them almost invincible, as the records of the club show. 

Mr. Trist places Kennedy in the very front ranks of 
whist adepts. He has a dash of brilliancy in the 
manipulation of his hand that elicits the admiration of 
advejsaries and on-lookers alike. He plays with the 
greatest rapidity, rarely, if ever, loses the run of even 
the smallest card, and when the last few cards fall, 
adversaries are made to feel the great strength of his 
generalship. 

Mr. Kennedy is a gentleman of the highest type of 
culture, remarkably social, affable and courteous. For 



WHIST SKETCHES. 99 

many years he held the cashiership of the Custom House 
at ^ew Orleaus under President Cleveland. When the 
political tide turned in favor of Republicanism he made 
way for his successor and cast his fortune in the far 
north-west. Whether or not he still gives an idle hour 
to his old pastime is unknown. 

There is a strong desire expressed among the members 
of The American Whist League, that at the next annual 
meeting Mr. Trist and Mr. Kennedy will join forces 
against the most formidable players present and give an 
illustration of their strength. Their presence would 
have a highly stimulating effect upon the League and its 
permanent success, and it is to be hoped that they will 
arrange to meet at its next session. 

Mr. Trist participates in his favorite pastime for 
something beyond the hour of pleasure it affords. He 
makes the game a serious study, penetrating its hidden 
mysteries in a careful, analytical manner, and after he 
has finished his scientific diagnosis, gives to the world 
the result of his observations in the way of a certain 
formula as a guide to the game. His " American 
Leads,^' play of ^' fourth- best,^^ etc., is the result of long 
research and will be accepted by the deep-thinking 
players both of this and the old world. He never forms 
hasty conclusions but makes a study of what he places 
before the whist public, which has given his methods of 
play such wide favor. 

At the game he is deliberate, cautious and observant. 
His deliberativeness does not take the form of slowness, 
and no one who has been fortunate enough to sit at the 



100 WHIST SKETCHES. 

table with him accuses him of immoderate delay. He 
grasps the situation of the cards, based on the previous 
fall, frames, as it were, a photographic picture of whal 
is left, and if there is a grand coup, a skilled finesse, or 
a deceptive strategic flanking of the enemy left in the 
hand, his partner can rest assured that the opportunity 
will not pass him by unheeded. 

Often during play, some of these " whist gems" are 
brought out by him, and he gives to each a brilliant 
finish that marks well the resourceful strength at his 
command. 

He never shows excitability and restlessness during 
play, no matter how deliberate partner or adversary may 
be in forming his opinion as to the proper card to play. 
He sits at the table in a philosophizing manner, studying 
the possibilities of the hand before him, and his calm? 
dignified bearing under every exigency arising, could be 
emulated with profit by all who indulge in this pastime. 

No loud rapping of the table when the cards are 
played, no boisterous talk, nothing that could in any 
wise disturb the equanimity of his adversary, has ever 
been charged to him. 

He invariably waits until it is turn to play before he 
detaches the card from his hand, and thereby avoids 
giving an inkling to partner of w^hat he is able to do 
with the lead. When it is his turn to play he places 
the card quietly in front of him, in such a manner that 
he avoids being called upon to " draw his card." 

His hand is always arranged in a systematic manner 
before play commences, after w^hich he keeps his atten- 



WIIIST SKETCHES. 101 

tion fixedly riveted to the center of the table, that he 
may the better draw correct inferences, as the game 
progresses, and if the situation is such that an extra 
trick can be made, partner feels the assurance that the 
opportunity will not go unnoticed. 'Tis this unyielding 
scrutiny, ready inference and masterly ability to post the 
game as it progresses, that has carried him to the 
pinnacle of whist fame. His memory is wonderfully 
retentive and it is a rare occurance to hear partner accuse 
him of having the master card meet an ignominious fate. 

Mr. Trist is exceptionally modest and retired in 
nature, is never given to idle, frivolous harangue, is 
peculiarly free from obtrusive and obnoxious acts, and 
bears himself, under all circumstances, a gentleman of 
culture and refinement. He is somewhat reserved in 
making new friendships, preferring to take time to study 
the applicant rather than give over the hand of good 
fellowship precipitately, but once given he proves 
steadfastly true so long as good behavior warrants. 

Pie commands the highest respect of all who have 
had intimate association with him, and never has he 
been accused of proving false from a social standpoint or 
of a betrayal of confidence during his long business career. 

Character is deeply moulded in his face, and it needs 
but a passing glance to convince one that his life is that 
of the upright. 

He does not court the blandishments of the world in 
any degree, but rather prefers to live along in the even 
tenor of his way, which has so strongly characterized 
his life throughout. 



II. 
MILWAUKEE WHIST CLUB. 

Sketch of the Club by ^' Singleton ^^ — Sketches of Eugene 
S. Elliot, John Rheinart, Judge Gilson, Sam. M. Green, 
Henry C. Payne, George W. Chandler, Leslie Ryan, 
W. W. Thayer and the Late George W. Hall. 

^^%i'^ 1875 a few gentlemen met in a shoe store on Grand 
^i Avenue and organized a chess club. Rooms were 
rented in the old Mack block at the corner of East Water 
and Wisconsin streets. Card games were not contemplat- 
ed at the organization, but cards were soon introduced, 
and it was not long before Whist found its way to the top 
and compelled a change of name in the corporation. 
Chess players still have privileges and occasionally they 
manifest a moderate enthusiasm and hold a tourney in 
the rooms, but interest then abates while whist " goes 
on forever." 

^'The first match games were played with Racine, Wis. 
No official records were kept and no particular impor- 
tance attached to the results. Later, when the Mil- 
waukees found they were making a ^' record," it was 
desirable to have full particulars of all matches, but no 
records of the Racine games could be found and the 
result of three games won and two lost was arrived at 
by discussing the question with a few of the players that 
participated in the matches, and taking concensus of 



WHIST SKETCHES. 103 

opinion as the most reasonable conclusion. All except 
the Kacine games are accurately recorded. 

**It was not till the year 1880, which marked the ad- 
vent of John Rheinart, that skill was introduced into 
the club ; and whatever credit has since been achieved 
is generously and deservedly attributed to the principles 
inculcated by hin>. 

"Mr. Rheinart as a partner of Deschapelles and a 
player of ripe experience, was well qualified to elevate 
the standard of play ; and association with him soon 
showed favorable results and stimulated the members to 
emulate his skill, and it is no derogation of Mr. Rhein- 
art's ability to say that several players have acquired 
his game as near as may be. 

"During^ the season of 1890-91 the Milwaukee Whist 
Club has won three match games of Duplicate whist 
from Chicago, one game from Waukesha and one game 
of straight away whist from all the visiting clubs at the 
Whist Congress. The complete record, with the excep- 
tion of the Racine games, is as follows : Appleton 5, 
Aurora 3, Chicago 8, Evanston 3, Fond du Lac 6, Nee- 
nah 1, Oshkosh 5, Rockford 6, United States 1, Wau- 
kesha 5, Wausau 1 , a total of 44 games won and none 
lost except the Racine games. At the yearly meeting 
of the club, which occurred Sept. 17th, Mr. H. M. 
Northrop was elected President for 1891-92. Several 
matches will doubtless be played the coming year. 
When the Milwaukees reach a record of 60 games won 
there will very likely be a golden celebration. 

"With all their success the Milwaukees realize that 



104 WHIST SKETCHES. 

there is just as good and perhaps better whist played in 
the East, but they are going to fight hard to preserve 
their record and will enter all contests with blood in 
their eyes. 

''There is a good deal of talk about the next meeting 
of the American Whist League and Milwaukee may be 
counted on for a large delegation. With Mr. Northop 
as a leader, the members will feel equal to anytliing. 
Mr. Northrop is one of the best, if not the very best 
player in the club, but he doesn't know it, and this 
makes him a very agreeable partner. 

"The younger element of the whist club is coming to 
the front and bids fair to supply new blood as fast as 
needed. Duplicate whist has proved a great educator 
and is now the popular game. Much more interest has 
been taken in whist this season than usual, and several 
tables are going every night. President Northop, Judge 
Gilson, INIessrs. Elliot, Allen, Paine, Hall, Swain, 
Streeter, Chapin, Thayer, Atwell and Merrill are very 
regular in attendance, and Comstock is always there. 
The club misses the genial countenance of Mr. Rheinart, 
who has settled in California, but everybody cherishes 
the hope of seeing him back again, if only for a visit. 
The game of whist is continually advancing in Milwau- 
kee, and if other sections of the country keep pace with 
that advance here, England will have to look to iier 
laurels or the game will make greater progress here 
than there.'' 




EUGENE S. ELLIOTT. 

President of The First American Whist Congress, and 
The American Whist League. 



WHIST SKETCHES. 105 

EUGENE S. ELLIOTT. 

Eugene S. Elliott, the genial and capable President 
of The First American Whist Congress, and of its 
out-growth, The American Whist League, was born in 
Illinois in 1842. He began his career as a boy at 
Dartmouth College, N. H., in 1861, and would have 
graduated in the Class of 1865, but he and about eighty- 
other students, mostly from Dartmouth and the Norwich 
Military Academy, were attacked with the war fever 
and enlisted in Co. B, 7th Squadron, Rhode Island 
Cavalry. He served with distinction, and after being 
mustered out engaged in business pursuits, but his bent 
was for law and he studied that profession, was admitted 
to the bar, and has since that time been practicing law 
in Milwaukee, where he has won a foremost position in 
the bar of that city, and that of one of the leading 
lawyers of his State. 

Politically he is a Republican, and was elected City 
Attorney of Milwaukee in 1886, re-elected in 1888, and 
was renominated in 1890 and got a sounder thrashing 
and defeat than he ever met with at the whist table. 

The Republican parly had taken the affirmative of 
the question, " That every child within the State had 
the right (o demand, and that it was the duty of the 
State to furnish ever^^ child, or to see that every child 
was furnished with the means of acquiring a knowledge 
of his duties as a citizen.'^ Collateral to this the 
Republican party insisted that every child within the 
State should be taught reading, writing, arithmetic and 
American history in llie English language. 



106 WHIST SKETCHES. 

Upon this wise issue the Republican party was buried 
deep, and President Elliott was so disgusted with the 
result that he forthwith closed his political career, as he 
hopes, forever. 

In the interests of whist he was the chairman of the 
meeting that resulted in the formation of the Milwaukee 
Chess Club, which is the Milwaukee Whist Club of 
to-day, the name " whist" being substituted for ^' chess," 
owing to the fact that its members drifted from one 
game to another until chess was entirely wiped out of 
existence so far as the club was concerned, and the name 
of the club was changed accordingly. 

Winfield Smith, of Milwaukee, ex-Attorney General 
of the State was the first President of the club. Mr. 
Elliott was its second President and James J. Jenkins, 
now Judge of the United States District Court for the 
Eastern District of Wisconsin, was its third President. 

The Milwaukee Club is an association of strong whist 
players, and Mr. Elliott ranks as one of the stronger 
players among the strong. 

He is an enthusiast in the interest of whist affairs, 
and he was the leading spirit in bringing to a head the 
club's idea of a Congress. 

His judicial temperament eminently fits him for a 
presiding officer. Cool, diplomatic, impartial, firm, he 
directs a convention so that harmony prevails and 
business progresses. 

The delegates to the Congress were by no means a 
unit in their views on whist, and the conduct of its 
affairs, the avoidance of dissension, and the success of 



WHIST SKETCHES. 107 

tlie Congress, were largely due to the breadth and scope 
shown by Eugene S. Elliot in the direction of its pro- 
ceedings. 

JOHN EHEINART. 

This distinguished native of France occupies the 
enviable position of being the only living man who sat 
at the whist table with the whist genius, Deschapelles. 
He was a favorite partner of him who is accorded the 
honor place in whist history. This association of Mr. 
Riieinart's, was of the whist day of a half a century 
ago. Mr. Rheinart settled in this country, in the State 
of Iowa, in 1848, and engaged in the practice of law. 
He acquired an independence at it and removed to Mil- 
waukee about twelve years ago. He has not been 
engaged in active business since. The present summer 
(1891) he removed to Los Angeles, California. 

Mr. Rheinart is the Nestor of the Milwaukee Club, 
which accords him the rank of its best player. 

In his whist play he follows the well established 
principles of the game as to the establishment of long 
suits, etc., but he will not tie himself down to the 
modern requirement of uniformity in original leads. 
He will deviate when in his judgment the interest of 
his hand demands it, but his departure in this regard 
is that of the expert, and not the tyro who has no 
deeper purpose than the hope of a ruff. Mr. Rheinart 
has a rare faculty of reading the combinations he is 
contending against, and lie exercises great skill in 
directing the forces in his hand to meet them. This 
insight into stragetic situations makes him a most 



108 WHIST SKETCHES. 

formidable opponent, and the ordinary player who 
follows conventions, or otherwise, has no show in a 
sitting against him. • 

Personally Mr. Rheinart is an accomplished gentle- 
man, with the courtesy of his race, but which with him 
is a part of his genial nature, and spontaneous. Apart 
from his most interesting whist career he is an affable 
and fascinating man to meet. 

Mr. Rheinart is writing in Whistj the Milwaukee 
Journal, a sketch of his Parisian days and his association 
with Deschapelles, which has an especial value and inter- 
est for the whist world. 

JUDGE FRANK L. GILSON 

Is an exceptionally interesting conversationalist. He 
bristles, as it were, with personal magnetism. He will 
stroll with you into the charmed valley of poesy and 
romance ; he will lead you onto the rugged hill of 
science, but he will not talk shop, or of himself. 
Consequently, you and he can converse for a fortnight 
of days and nights and you will learn something of 
everything but himself. 

Bill Nye and the Judge were youthful chums together, 
and the way Bill puts it is, that the Judge is a good 
talker. He says the Judge could talk and make 
speeches through all the waking hours, but could not 
be got down to writing them or letters. Such prosaic 
work hampered him more than picketing with a thirty- 
foot lariat would. Mr. Nye attributes his early bald- 



AVHIST SKETCHES. 109 

ness to the mental stress of holding up his end of the 
conversation with the Judge. 

Outside of his chosen profession Judge Gilson is a 
scholar, and a sound and ripe one. Both socially and 
politically he has held high rank in his State for many 
years, and he is one of Wisconsin's ablest speakers. 
Officially he has served as District Attorney of his 
county and Speaker of the State Assembly. He was 
the law associate of President Eugene S. Elliott until 
within the last two years, when he was elected Judge of 
the Superior Court of Milwaukee County, which position 
he now occupies. In whist matters he is ranked among 
the best players of the Milwaukee Club. He is a devot- 
ed student of whist and is constantly improving his game. 

The Judge is Dick Allen's favorite partner in a 
match, though he possesses none of Dick's brilliant 
whist erraticness. It is a tribute to the Judge's supreme 
self-control, that Dick has been unable to ruffle his 
nerves during five years of tactics, (designed to confuse 
the opponents,) as remarkable for their versatility as the 
antics of a colt turned loose. 

The Judge and Dick were partners in the Milwaukee 
cyclone against the crack team of the Hamilton Club of 
Philadelphia. The Judge says, for the first few hands 
Dick had no more regard for conventions than a rattled 
Texas steer loose in a camp meeting, but after he had 
violated nearly every known principle and succeeded in 
convincing Townsend and Ellison that he knew nothing 
whatever about whist, he steadied down and played a 
really good game. 



110 WHIST SKETCHES. 

SAM. M. GEEEN. 

To run across Sam. M. Green in Milwaukee, not 
knowing him, one would be sure he was John Green^ 
his brother, the Vice President of the Pennsylvania 
Railroad, up to some whist, or other scheme, in 
Milwaukee. They are very like. Sam being a Phila- 
delphian, and also the Westerner from whose career the 
late Mr. Greely formulated his famous axiom, '^ Go 
west, young man,^' we shall lead a little off the 
^'conventional'' lines in noting him. 

Sam was born in Philadelphia in August, 1851. At 
the tender age of sixteen years he went to Milwaukee. 
It is not recorded whether he ran away from home, fired 
w^ith fancies of hunting the noble red man on the 
frontier, or whether a precocious judgment whispered to 
him it was the place for young blood and brains to grow 
up with. However, he got there, and his next five 
years were given to education, and to the thorough 
comprehension of the topography and resources of the 
district. 

After he cast his virgin vote (Republican) at the 
spring election of '72, he engaged in the business of 
contractor for building railroads and other public works, 
and w^as active in it for seven years, when he went into 
manufacturing, and other business enterprises. Among 
them are the "Milwaukee Car Wheel and Foundry Co.," 
*' Wisconsin Trust Co.," and " Milwaukee Mutual Loan 
and Building Association," all of wdiich he is the 
Vice President of. 



WHIST SKETCHES. Ill 

He is also Secretary and Treasurer of the " North- 
western Trust and Investment Co.," " The Highland 
House Co.," and "The North Avenue Park Co." 

He holds large interests in all of them, and his 
youthful immigration west seems thereby justified. 

He is a member of the Milwaukee Whist Club, and 
of the Milwaukee Club, and is a Presbyterian when he 
goes to church. Next to going to church, he would 
rather play whist than eat, and, as he is a busy man, he 
robs many of his meal hours for a rubber, and this is 
adjudged why he hasn't the dyspepsia, and hasn't grown 
stout. But he is never too busy to take care of the 
boys when they visit Milwaukee, which he stubbornly 
persists in holding up as the handsomest city in America. 

The native conventionalists and guerrillas hold Sam 
up as a good specimen of a western hustler. He is full 
of electricity from the crown of his head to the sole of 
his feet, always has a move on and keeps other people 
moving, and plays whist in about the same way that he 
does business. His perceptions are acute, his judgment 
clear, his inferences prompt, and in the main correct, and 
he has the elements of a first-class whist player in his 
make-up, and if he cannot really spare the time from 
his multiform business, he should stop eating altogether, 
to gain time for practice and a great whist record. 

HENEY C. PAYNE 

Is another Milwaukee whist fiend of very ranch the 
same calibre of Sam. M. Green as a man. Mr. Payne 
would rather play whist than sleep, and as it usually 



112 WHIST SKETCHES. 

takes longer to sleep than to eat, he steals more time 
from his bed than Mr. Green can from the table ; 
consequently he gets more practice as a whister than 
Mr. Green. 

Among Republican politicians of Wisconsin, FTenry 
C. Payne occupies about the same position that Thurlow 
Weed did in New York. 

In other words he is a Republican boss. 

Aside from his politics, which have nothing to do 
with the case, he is a genial, sociable gentleman, long- 
headed, clear-minded, sagacious in planning and prompt 
in executing. 

If he has any special hobby it is dummy whist, which 
he prefers to any other, and he is said to be a terror at it. 
Whatever faults are chargeable to him as a whist player 
lie mainly in the rapidity of his play, which is charac- 
teristic of his mental make-up. He never did a slow 
thing in his life, and he is rarely guilty of a foolish one. 

He is President of the Milwaukee and Northern 
Railroad, of the Wisconsin Telephone Company, and is 
General Manager and Vice President of the Edison 
Syndicate, which controls many miles of Milwaukee's 
street railways. It is counted in that city, if he is not 
worth millions to-day he will be before he is "cited to 
his compt ;" and he is a young man yet, comparatively. 

When John Green, of the Pennsylvania Railroad, 
and of the Hamilton Whist Club, Philadelphia, gets 
his coat off and sits at the whist table with his brother, 
Sam. M. Green, and Henry C. Payne, there are three 
men together of the same alert electric type, and the 



WHIST SKETCHES. 113 

cards are bound to fly at the gait of two rounds to a 
wink. Though they may not be responsible for the 
origin of the term ^' railroad whist," their play is 
characterized by the rapidity with which they reach 
conclusions in their daily mass of routine business, and 
their whist inferences are generally as sound as their 
decisions in more serious affairs. 

LESLIE RYAN. 

Milwaukee has lost one of her strong players, Leslie 
Ryan, a bright young lawyer who represented the 
New York firm of attorneys of which ex-President 
Cleveland is a member, in some intricate cases in the 
West so ably and successfully, never losing a trick, that 
the firm considered ability of that sort should be trans- 
ported to its proper field. New York City, and as a 
result, Ryan is now of that firm, and if its atmosphere 
should convert or pervert his Republicanism into Dem- 
ocracy, he will stand a fighting show of the nomination 
for Vice President if his chief becomes the standard- 
bearer of the Democratic party. New York and 
Tammany may unsettle Ryan's Republicanism, but it 
cannot break him into leading original singletons, or 
trumping his partner's ace. 

GEORGE W. CHANDLER 
Is one of the strong stand-by's of the Milwaukee Club. 
He follows " Cavendish's " leads, and is a remarkably 
intelligent, bold player, quick in his inferences, accurate 
in his judgment, correct in his memory, and adaptable 
and reliable as a partner. 



114 WHIST SKETCHES. 

W. W. THAYER 

Is one of the members of the Straw Elsworth Manu- 
facturing Company. He started this life in the early 
fifties. The first fad of consequence he became infatu- 
ated with w-as dyspepsia, and the next one, whist. They 
both belong to the early phases of his career, and they 
and he have clung persistently together. So far, his 
whist has improved, and his dyspepsia at least has held its 
own. He is a confirmed crank on the one, while the 
other has not made him cranky. As a fiend he ranks 
with the strongest of the Milwaukee Club. He usually 
plays with H. M. Northrop, its present President, and 
they make a formidable pair, as Barney and Safford, 
who got a whiif of them in the '^cyclone,'' will testify to. 

Thayer is listed for a long life, as he is as conservative 
in his eating and drinking as he is in calling for trumps. 

He is a frequent visitor to the East, and when he was 
on last spring dyspepsia had the floor and gallery too. 
His doctor prescribed fresh Delaware shad, and two 
doses of half a shad each tabled the dyspepsia fiend. 
And now Thayer is engaged in the pet scheme of 
stocking Lake Michigan with fresh Delaware shad. 
But he does not suffer this to encroach on his regular 
whist sittings. He has unfurled on his motto, " Death 
to Dyspepsia \ Life Perennial to Whist !" 

GEORGE W. HALL. 

We regret the untimely death of George W. Hall, 
one of the youngest and brightest members of the club, 
which occured October 2d. 



WHIST SKETCHES. 115 

Mr. Hall was of a modest and reserved nature, and 
his merits were best known and appreciated as revealed 
by the ties of friendship. He was among the clubs 
strongest players, a student of the game and well read 
in its literature. He was one of tiie editors of Whists 
and that excellent journal has sustained a great loss. 
His good judgment and zeal worked hand in hand in 
the interests of his paper. He was connected with one 
of the railroads and had just been promoted to a position 
of greater responsibility. In the straight away tourna- 
ment of the Congress he was the partner of President 
Elliott, and they defeated Smith and Lodge, of the 
Albany Club. He was one of the four that represented 
the Milwaukee Club in the tournament played after the 
Orndorff system of duplicate. 



III. 
NARRAGANSETT WHIST CLUB. 

Sketch of the Club — Its Civil Service Members and who 
they are — Sketches of Walter H, Barney, James A. 
George, George H. NewhoJl, George H. Sturdy, George 
H. Shepley, and G. W. Parker. 

'he Narragansett Whist Club, of Providence, 
Rhode Island, being a sort of civil service organi- 
zation, that is, a candidate has to attain to a certain 
standard of whist before he can become a member, and 
whist experts of the club pass upon his acquirements in 
this regard, we shall refer to it rather fully. 

It is one of the crack whist clubs of New England, 
and because of its requirements of whist ability, it has 
a comparatively limited but distinguished roll of 
members. Its officers are James A. George, President ; 
George H. Newhall, Vice President ; George H. Sturdy, 
Treasurer, and ^Valter H. Barney, Secretary. Its 
members are Arthur H. Carpenter, manufacturing 
jeweler; Philip B. Durfce, a prominent member of the 
City Council and of the firm of Coria & Co., oils ; 
Danial A. Hunt ; Dexter N. Knight, with his brothers, 
B. B. and R. Knight, the largest cotton manufacturers 
in the country ; George H. Robinson, Vice President 
of the Gorham Manufacturing Co ; George H. Shepley, 
insurance; Jesse B. Sweet, of the Sweet Grain Co.; 



WHIST SKETCHES. 117 

Orsmiis A. Taft, brother of ex-Governor Taft; Walter 
E.. Wightman, chief clerk of the Board of State 
Charities and Corrections ; William H. Wood, real 
estate; James M. Smith, manager Providence branch of 
H. B. Smith Steam Heating Manufacturing Co.; 
Hoffman S. Dorchester, manufacturing jeweller, Presi- 
dent of the Jewellers' Board of Trade ; Clark Thurston, 
Vice President of the American Screw Co. The above 
are all of Providence. The non-resident members are 
Oscar J. Rathbun and his son Edward H. Rathbun, of 
Woonsocket, R. I., the former ex-Lieutenant Governor 
of Rhode Island and President of the Harris Woolen 
Co. ; George W. Parker, of Boston, the favorite partner 
of " G. W. P.,'' author of ''American Whist Illustra- 
ted ''; M. H. Fuller, of Hartford Conn., and George 
West, of New York City. 

The Narragansett can put up as strong teams at 
duplicate or straight whist as any club in the country. 

It was represented at the Congress by Walter H. 
Barney and George H. Sturdy. 

The following personal of some of its members will 
not be without interest to the whist world. 

JAMES A. GEORGE, 

The President of the club, is better known to his friends 
as^'Gus." 

" Gus " is a pronounced brunette, and draws the 
scales to scant 200 pounds. He is an Apollo in form 
and address, with too much whist sense, however, to 
even suggest the dude. He is of medium stature, has a 



118 WHIST SKETCHES. 

piercing dark eye, is good company, very entertaining, 
tells a capital story, has a phenomenal laugh, and is very 
popular socially. He loves whist above all things, is 
prompt and correct at inferences and play, and adaptable 
to all conditions of good or poor players. He is sound 
rather than speculative in play. He doesn't miss 
opportunities for coups, and when he indulges in them 
or in finesse they generally succeed because based upon 
correct inference. 

^' Gus '^ is in wholesale hardware, and he is an 
accurate judge of character in business or whist. 
Outside of all his other whist aptitude Gus's strong 
point is his adaptability and co-operation with partner. 
No one knows better than he how to snatch victory out 
of the jaws of defeat and to turn even his partner's 
misplays to advantage. His sticking talent at the game 
is almost without limit. 

GEOEGE H. NEWHALL, 

The Vice President, is the manager of the Household 
Sewing Machine Co. His age is about thirty-seven years, 
but he looks ten years younger. He is tall, well-built, 
ruddy and genial, yet rather retiring. 

He likes whist next best to his family, and his whist 
habits are regular and most exemplary. 

No matter what the state of the game or hand may 
be, he drops whist at the club at the stroke of eleven 
p. M., but away from home he has all day and all-night 
staying power at the whist table. As a man and player 
he is most regarded by those who know him best, and 



WHIST SKETCHES. 119 

this regard grows upon acquaintance. He is an ideal 
man to sit with at whist, always ready to give up to 
partner and never rattled by his most erratic play. 

Newhall is a favorite partner with both George and 
Sturdy and any two of them make a tough team for 
outside experts to tackle. 

GEOEGE H. STUEDY, 

Treasurer of the club, aged thirty-eight years, bald, but 
not born so, — acquired since he began wearing a plug 
hat. This feature gives George an unusually benign 
and intellectual front. At the royal game he has an 
intuitive perception of the lay of things, and with 
contempt of formal rules in such cases, he will cast 
conventions aside and astonish the table with erratic but 
sound and brilliant play. 

George has no patience with a careless or incompetent 
player, and if his partner makes mistakes beyond his 
power of endurance, he will shell out a handful of 
dimes for the privilege of expressing himself. (There 
is a fine of 10 cents in the Narragansett Club for 
speaking after the trump is turned.) The club talks of 
building an ante-room where Sturdy can retire to to 
give vent to his feelings on such occasions. He is a 
reliable and strong player so long as he has a partner 
who does not break him up. 

WALTEE H. BAENEY, 

The Secretary of the Narragansett Club, and the 
Recording Secretary of the American Whist League, 
was born and has spent most of his days in the staid old 



120 WHIST SKETCHES. 

town of Providence, but lived for a few years on the 
Pacific slope, which probably accounts for his occasional 
lapses from vsouud, conservative play to the idiosyncrasies 
of experiments that are sometimes disastrous, although 
sometimes meeting with phenomenal success. His 
interest in whist is of recent growth, dating from the 
inception of the Narragansett Ckib about four years 
ago. He is not naturally as fine a player as some of 
the other members of his club, but as a student of the 
game has outstripped them all. There is little that 
has been written on the game but he has read and 
carefully considered, and but few whist publications, 
modern or antique, but are on the shelves of his library. 
The " find " of an old, odd or new book on whist is 
hailed by him with that peculiar glee that only the 
bibliomaniac can appreciate. He has also studied the 
game from the mathematical add analytical side, and 
has worked out many of the most intricate problems. 
For instance he has devoted weeks of labor and 
hundreds of pages of figures to an analysis by the 
doctrine of probabilities of the value of the G. W. P. 
play of the nine from king, knave, nine, in suits not 
containing the ten. He has also a very carefully 
prepared analysis of the situation and relative value of 
the leads of ace and nine from ace, queen, ten, nine, and 
ace, knave, ten, nine. Some of his friends say that he 
would rather work out these problems than even to play 
the game itself. He, however, will not admit that 
anything outranks the game in interest. He is an 
excellent partner to one who plays regularly, and at 



WHIST SKETCHES. 121 

times is given to some very bright play, but is not so 
quick as some others to perceive or take advantage of 
irregular play on the part of his partner. When he 
makes an error no one perceives it quicker than he does 
himself, and certainly no one is so much disturbed by it. 
His play varies a good deal at different times according 
to the state of his feelings, but his thorough knowledge 
of the technique of the game and quick appreciation of 
the good play of either partner or adversaries, render 
him a welcome member of the table, even with much 
stronger players. 

He was prominently identified with the Milwaukee 
Congress, and did much to make it a success. His 
acquaintance with the varied literature of the game, and 
his efforts in drafting the peculiar code of his own club, 
as well as his logical mind and legal training, rendered 
him an influential member of the committee which 
drafted the playing rules. He was also chairman, and 
himself drafted the constitution of the League. He is 
an enthusiast over the League and its prospects of 
growth and usefulness, and is an active worker on the 
Executive Committee. 

He has visited most of the important clubs of the 
League, and is perhaps better acquainted than any one 
of his confreres with their membership. 

He is a graduate of Brown University, and a lawyer 

by profession. He studied law in the office of Colwell 

& Colt, then composed of his present partner, Judge 

Colwell, and D. B. B. Colt, now U. S. Circuit Judge of 

the Appellate Division of the First (New England) 



122 WHIST SKETCHES. 

Circuit. As a lawyer, he is noted as a draughtsman and 
as a special pleader, and he brings the same logical and 
analytical powei's into his studies of the game in which 
the cards are made to speak. He says that sometime 
he is going to write a book on "The Language of 
Whist.'^ If he does so you may depend it will be at 
once thorough and readable. 

He is thirty-seven years old, light complexioned, 
blue eyes, wears a full beard and Bostonian spectacles, 
is of medium height, and is inclined to grow aldermanic 
as he grows older. 

Next to whist his hobby is Sunday School work. He 
has been for some years the Secretary of one of the 
largest Sunday Schools in New England, and claims to 
have the best equipped and most thoroughly systematized 
secretary's department in the world. Barney will teach 
the young ideas of his school how to shoot in the correct 
rudiments of whist, and thus lay the foundation to keep 
them out of mischief when they require wholesome 
recreation. 

He is also something of a politician, a prominent 
member of the City Council, and President of the 
School Committee. 

GEOBGE H. SHEPLEY 

Is the leading insurance man of Providence, and is a 
character. He is cited by his friends as a glorious 
fellow, and is one of those rare mortals adaptable to and 
companionable with everybody, and this is why Provi- 
dence leads the insurance cities of New England. 



WHIST SKETCHES. 123 

Sbepley has a pou'erful constitution, nerves of steel, and 
is a great athlete. He belongs to all of the clubs of 
Providence, and all tiie clubs within decent reach of the 
city. He also belongs to the Masonic Order, and has 
taken all its high-flying degrees and extra frills, and 
to all the other secret associations, except the churches, 
and is away up in all of them. 

He is a great story teller, great joker, and an unmiti- 
gated player of practical jokes of the amiable sort. 
Hunting is his hobby, and he shoots and fishes from 
the Atlantic to the Pacific. He has never been known 
to tell a lie about the game he has bagged, or the big 
fishes he has landed. He is all activity, and works hard 
and plays hard. In his business he dictates to two or 
three unusually good-looking stenographers at a time. 
In whist he plays a very strong or a very ragged game, 
according to the state of his liver. 

He is an all-nighter at the game. His family is a 
very charming one, and very lenient with George's all- 
night hobby, because they know he is doing nothing 
worse than whist. One of his children on being asked 
if she wasn't George Shepley's little girl, answered : 
" Well, I'm the little girl he sometimes takes breakfast 

with." 

G. W. PAEKEE. 

Mr. Parker is one of the strong players of the 
Narragansett Club, and is also a member of the 
Deschapelles Club, Boston. He is the partner that 
usually plays with " G. W. P.," and he played with him 
at Easton in the summer of 1890 against the " Easton 



124 WHIST SKETCHES. 

Quartette." In the "Week of Wbist at Paxinosa," 
describiog those interesting sittings, is the following 
reference to Parker, which fairly describes him : " Mr. 
Parker is a young man, undemonstrative and rather 
reserved in general bearing. He has a full, well-shaped 
head, nose slightly aqueliue, deviating but a trifle from 
the line of his high broad forehead. His nostrils, 
mouth and chin mark force and firmness. He has been 
a student of whist for the past five years, and his 
aptitude for it was so pronounced that Mr. Pettes took 
a warm interest in developing his whist proclivity. 
Their relation has grown into that of Jidiis Achates^ and 
they mainly play contests as partners, and powerful 
opponents they be. Mr. Parker has a masterly percep- 
tion of the game, and his keen judgment is extremely 
rarely at fault. In many cases it is marvellous, seeming 
almost prescient. His conduct of the game is masterly 
without qualification." 



IV. 
THE DENVER CLUB. 

Denver — The Type of its Representative Men — The 
Denver Club — Sketch of its President ^ Henry R. 
Wolcott — His Influence to Promote Better Whist — 
Messrs. Jerorae^ Denman, Bissell, Sullivan, Cherry, 
C. D. Gurley and the Irrepressible R. A. Gurley, 

jJenver is the Queen City of the mountains. It is 
-X^ the handsomest, most substantial and most progress- 
ive city west of the Mississippi and east of the Pacific 
coast. Its population is typical of that order of brains 
and energy that young men of the East have found 
their native homes a too circumscribed field to satisfy 
their ambition. There is a characteristic in the popula- 
tion that has sought Denver that may be defined as the 
opposite of that of a class who settle in the conservative 
routine of business incident to agricultural centres. A 
mineral district provides a more attractive, less uuham- 
pered range for ambition of the kind that has a cast of 
imagination as well as business in it. There is more 
speculation in its eye. It is not content to be tied down. 
It plays a heavier hand. It risks defeat to achieve 
great reward. Men of this type are usually broad, bold 
and generous. And the men who have- won in the 
mountain mines represent the broad, liberal enterprise 
that Denver is built upon. Though there is a speculative 
element in this kind of man, Denver has been freer 



126 WHIST SKETCHES. 

from speculative booms than any city in the \Yest. In 
fact, there has never been any speculative real estate 
boom there, and the city's enhancements in realty values 
have been of legitimate outgrowth. The explanation 
of this lies mainly in the fact that the speculative bent 
finds vent in the vast mineral territory of Colorado of 
which Denver is the commercial and social metropolis. 
All the representatives of Colorado's successful mining 
enterprises headquarter in Denver, and every street in the 
beautiful city bears evidence of their pride in it, and the 
princely liberally of their expenditure on its improvement. 

The Denver Club, of which we started to write, is in 
illustration of the characteristics we have briefly 
outlined. Founded twelve years ago, it has a member- 
ship of over four hundred, with one of the handsomest 
and best equipped club houses in the country. They 
have expended §250,000 on their property. 

About forty per cent of its members are non-residents. 
The business interests of two-thirds of these non-resi- 
dents are scattered through all parts of Colorado, and 
those of the remaining third mainly in mineral districts 
of other Rocky Mountain States and Territories. 
Their social and local business centres in Denver. This 
non-resident club element shows what we have indicated 
of Denver's make-up very pronouncedly. 

A representative man of this type is Hon. Henry R. 
Wolcott, President of the club. He was born in 
Massachusetts in 1846, and in 1869 his restless energy 
sought a broader opportunity in the Rocky Mountains 
than he considered the sluggish East afforded him. He 



WHIST SKETCHES. 127 

was not mistaken^ and his business insistency and 
integrity have brought him rewards that few have 
attained. He has been and is identified with many of 
the most stable interests of the West, and his sound 
judgment and wise counsels have never failed to carry 
them to a successful issue. Denver bears his mark in 
its palatial buildings and heaviest business enterprises, 
and the interests of the city and the State in general 
owe a great deal to his unselfish zeal in advancing them. 
Socially Mr. Wolcott is a prince among men. Cordial, 
genial and sincere, he has won a host of devoted friends. 
The club owes much of its status to his wise administra- 
tion. As with his other affairs, he conducts it on no 
meagre base, hence the club house and appointments on 
their magnificent scale are largely due to him. 

The club has been fortunate in having such a man at 
its presidential helm ten of its twelve years of .existence. 

It is a social club with a strong whist element in it. 
Its president is devoted to the game, is a student of its 
literature, theory and practice, and his influence has done 
much to elevate whist to its higher standpoints in his 
club. Mr. Wolcott concentrates his entire attention on 
developments during play, and he rarely fails to grasp 
the true strategic situation and take advantage of it. 
Hence he is naturally fond of duplicate whist, the game 
that pitilessly holds the mirror up to weakness, inatten- 
tion and carelessness. Mr. Wolcott is of the opinion 
that the time is near at hand when all prominent whist 
clubs will adopt duplicate as the standard game. 

He has taken a strong interest in the League associa- 



*? 



128 WHIST SKETCHES. 

tion of whist clubs, and nothing in reason will keep this 
genial fiend from meeting his brother fiends at the next 
Congress in New York City. 

The whist career of players in the Denver Club of 
the rank of L. Jerome, A. A. Denman, J. B. Bissell, 
Dennis Sullivan, James A. Cherry, the irrepressible 
R. A. Gurley and others of the whist coterie would 
make interesting subjects, but excepting the last two 
named, who figure throughout these pages, we have not 
the personal acquaintance to warrant the attempt to 
record them. But in passing it can be said that C. D. 
Gurley, the brother of the '^irrepressible," was a 
formidable fiend, but he has suffered business and other 
loves to woo him from whist, yet it is held by his 
fellows, who miss him from the table, that he will come 
wandering like the prodigal son into the true fold again. 

R. A. Gurley and James A. Cherry represented the 
club at the Congress, and took a prominent and import- 
ant part in its proceedings. In the straight-away 
cyclone, Paine and Smith buried them in a snow-drift 
thirty-four points deep. But Rocky Mountain fiends 
don't mind a little avalanche of that sort. They shook 
themselves out of it, and tackled Ellison and Townsend, 
of the Hamilton Club, and defeated them by seven net 
points in twelve boards at duplicate, and Safford and 
Foster four points in eight boards ; defeated several 
Milwaukee teams at straight-away whist, and went back 
to their mountain huts with heads up. It is said they 
were gunning for the Pomfrets, but it is not probable 
they hunted with much energy. 



V. 

THE HAMILTON CLUB. 

Its Origin — Its Handsome New Club House — Member- 
ship — Its Tournament Team — List of Some of its 
Strovg Players — The Whist Hand in Which Each 
Player Held Thhieen Cards of a Suit — Its Doings at 
the Congress, 

^1 HE Hamilton Club, of Philadelphia, grew out of 
^T the enthusiasm of a few devotees of whist who 
met on stated occasions at their homes to enjoy their 
favorite game. They multiplied apace and incorporated 
into club form in 1887. Rented quarters were occupied 
until 1889, when they moved into their present elegant 
new club house on Forty-first Street, north of Spruce, 
which is the finest club building in the country that is 
devoted exclusively to whist. Mr. Wm.. H. Kimball, 
one of its members, had the direction of its plans and 
construction, and if there were more of his sort of 
architectural capability and practical good sense applied 
in the erection of private and public buildings, there 
would be a greater measure of content in living in them. 
In the Hamilton Club building the dominating idea 
was utility, and this was secured without encroachment 
on comfort and attractiveness. Its proportions are 
liarmonious, its ventilation thorough and its furnishment 
appropriate, rich and simple. Its large open fire-places, 
hard wood finish, and the appointments of its suites are 



130 WHIST SKETCHES. 

without coldness and formality, and their atmosphere is 
of home-like comfort. 

The club has about 125 members at present. It is 
exclusively a whist club, and as such is the largest 
organization in the country. Its members all play 
whist, and the great majority of them have passed far 
beyond the line of " scrub '' whist. Fifty players could 
be selected from them able to cope with a like number, 
say from the Milwaukee Club, inclusive of Dick Allen, 
while teams of Hamiltonians can be picked that can sit 
against the picked players of the country, and they 
must be strong indeed if the Hamiltons do not defeat 
them. The representative tournament team are its 
President, E. Price Townsend, Eugene L. Ellison 
Gustavus Remak, Jr., and Milton C. Work, and they 
are a formidable quartette of experts. There are teams 
scarcely less formidable, yet we cannot undertake to 
point them out, but name a number of the higher rank 
players, knowing at the same time that there are 
omissions because of unfamiliarity with their quality of 
play. — Harrison Townsend, E. A. Ballard, Dr. H. W. 
Cattell, J. B. Collahan, Captain John M, Walton, Wm. 
H. Kimball, Henry C. Brown, Dr. Wyllis K. Ingersoll, 
Dr. Charles W. Dulles, Joseph H. Cofrode, John Fah- 
nestock, Charles E, Hallowell, W^ra. S. Mclntire, 
Franklin Townsend, R. D. Work, Dr. M. H. Forrest, 
J. H. Loomis, Dr. W. C. Dixon, Charles H. Yarnell, 
Seymour B. Neff, Eugene Van Loan, Edward J. Dur- 
ban, Robert Lowrie, John P. Green, Frank Evans, Dr. 
S. R. Skillern, A. W. Rus.sell, Charles Este, Dr. E. J. 



WHIST SKETCHES. 131 

KefFer, Andrew Low Green, Edward 11. Sharwood, Dr. 
R. M. Girvin, John C. Johnson, J. Irvine Scott, Win* 
Howell, Jr., O. H. Searle, Charles M. Griskey, Edward 
A. Greene, Charles F. Seeger, George J. Klemm, Albert 
Graff, John F. Craig, J. E. Hyneman. 

The club allows no betting or playing for stakes in 
any form, nor the use of malt or spirituous liquors in 
its house. In its play heretofore it has conformed 
generally to " Cavendishes ^^ system for English play, 
but since the meeting of the Congress it has adopted the 
system of American leads as formulated by " Cavendish " 
in his 19th Edition, Appendix C. 

President E. Price Townsend, Eugene L. Ellison? 
Captain John M. Walton and William S. Kimball 
represented the club at the Milwaukee Congress, and 
took a prominent part in its discussions. In the cyclone 
tournament of Milwaukee against All-America, Town- 
send and Ellison fell into the hands of that prince of 
guerillas, Dick Allen, and the Rev. Judge Gilson. Dick 
brought out his full band, and about all that he could 
be depended upon for the first few hands was not to 
revoke, but after he had worked Philadelphia up to 
what he considered the dead ripe stand- point of uncer- 
tainty, he steadied down and proceeded to scoop it. The 
Hamilton pair, used to nothing but victory, caught od^ 
after this one lesson, that it would be as futile a scheme 
to try and down Dick by conventions as to attempt to 
run an express train on a turnpike. Captain Walton 
and Kimball, however, evened things up for the Ham- 
ilton in the cyclone, and were the only team from the 
East that wasn't up-ended in the breeze. But the 



132 WHIST SKETCHES. 

Captain didn't go through the war for nothing, and he 

is alike cool, wary and adaptable at whist. Kimball 

and Walton's victory, and Townsend's winning of the 

Streeter trophy, were stars on the banner the Hamilton 

bore from the Congress. 

The editor of the Milwaukee Sentinel^ w^ho interviewed 

Mr. Ellison, said as follows of him : 

" Eugene L. Ellison is one of the crack players of 
the Hamilton Club, Philadelphia. He has been very 
active in the business of the Congress, and took an 
active part in the discussions of the business session. 
Speaking of the Congress, Mr. Ellison said: ^ The 
game of whist throughout all the country will feel the 
good effects of this Congress. It will establish a uni- 
formity in the playing rules, or at least will take a step 
in that direction, which will reach the end required at 
some future Congress. Acquiring such a uniformity is 
an important advance, and may not be accomplished all 
at once, but with this beginning it is bound to be brought 
about. It will also develop the game, and new whist 
clubs will spring up all over the country. This Congress 
is an excellent thing for the welfare of the game.' " 

The Hamilton Club has a whist curiosity, framed and 
hanging on its walls, in the shape of a hand in which 
each of the players held thirteen cards of a suit. The 
cards were regularly shuffled, cut and dealt, and played 
September 4, 1889. The players were Dr. S. R. Skil- 
lern, Joseph H. Cofrode, Wm. S. Kimball and A. W. 
Russell. The hand is certified to by the affidavit of 
each player. 

The club's officers are : President, E. Price Townsend ; 
A'^ice President, Captain John M. Walton ; Treasurer, 
Edwin R. Sharwood ; Secretary, J. B. Colahan, Jr. 



VI. 



WORCESTER AND EASTON. 

The Commonwealth Club, of Worcester, Mass. — Its Mem- 
bership, Laws, and Record of Contests — Fines for De- 
viations from the Order for the Original Lead — Thos. 
C. Orndorff. The Pomfret Club, of Easton, Pa. — Its 
Rules, and Method of Duplicate — Its ^legates in the 
Milwaukee '' Cyclone.^' 

*HE Commonwealth Club, of Worcester, Mass., 
is one of the crack clubs of the East, where whist 
is played from the scientific stand -point. It was incor- 
porated in 1880, and has a resident membership of 150, 
and fifteen non-resident members. The original limit to 
membership was 160, but the limit was extended this 
year to 200. 

It is a social organization, and it occupies a fine buil- 
ding, with billiard, pool, and card rooms, parlor, 
reading room and banquet room. The club has a 
banquet once a month, a feature that promotes its 
interests. Ko liquors are allowed in the club, nor any 
playing for stakes. It numbers 48 regular whist play- 
ers, and it has a whist session each afternoon and night, 
and a record is kept of scores. During the month of 
September forty- two members took part in the play, 
scoring 8,323 points in 1,522 games, showing an average 
of 5.^^^ points per game. Fifteen members played over 



134 WHIST SKETCHES. 

100 games during the month, the highest average being 
5.^^ by F. B. Waite. Three members played over 200 
games, L. B. Thayer making the highest average, 5.^^^- 

The club enforces very strict rules to govern its games 
of whist. Silence is the order after the trump is turned, 
and penalties for breaches are in points added to or 
deducted from the score, to be enforced between deals. 

The importance the club attaches to correct play is 
witnessed by their rule for the original lead, which is as 
follows : 

" If deviation from the order of leads is made upon 
the original lead of the first player, attention may be 
called to the error by any of the players, and he shall 
be fined five points, to be deducted from his individual 
score for the session.'^ 

Thomas C. Orndorff, the inventor of the Orndorff 
system of duplicate described in these pages, is a member 
of this club. 

The Commonwealth Club wears the scars of many a 
hard-fought battle with the experts of Boston, and of 
the clubs of other New England cities, but it bears the 
banners of more victories than defeats. 

This club wears a chip on its shoulder, and its latch- 
string is always out to any of the professors who may 
care to try conclusions with it over the whist table. 

Its officers are : President, Henry E. Smith ; Vice 
President, Thomas C. Orndorff; Treasurer, Frank P. 
Kendall ; Clerk, Herbert A. Currier. 

The club was represented at the Milwaukee Congress 
by Thomas C. Orndorff. 



WHIST SKETCHES. 135 

THE POMFEET CLUB, 



Of Easton, Pa., is a social organization comprising fifty- 
six members. Its club house is at 319 Northampton 
Street. Thirty-eight of its members play whist, about 
one half of them regularly, the remainder but occa- 
sionally. The American system is the one generally 
followed. 

Duplicate whist has become popular, and is preferred 
by most of the players since the Kalamazoo trays have 
relieved it of its former tedious features of preparing and 
numbering the hands, and preserving them for the over- 
play. With the trays, the game can be finished in less 
time than at straight-away whist, as the hands can be 
all dealt prior to the sitting if needs be. 

With single tables at the Pomfret Club, the custom 
is to play about three sittings in of, say, fifteen hands 
each before the overplay is begun, as it is found that 
the element of memory is too pronounced with excep- 
tional hands w^ien the play and overplay occur at the 
same sitting. Intermediate sittings confuse, if they do 
not entirely eliminate, this factor of memory. 

Neither liquors nor playing for stakes are allowed in 
the club. 

Its officers are President, Joseph S. Rodenbough ; 
Treasurer, John Maxwell ; Secretary, John Bacon. 

The Pomfrets were represented at the Milwaukee 
Congress by C. D. P. Hamilton and C. S. Boutcher. 

This long-geared pair of Easton tenderfeet were not 
acclimated to the western zephyrs, and when the Mil- 



136 WHIST SKETCHES. 

waukee straight-away Cyclone struck them, they were 
tossed about like a canal boat in a gale without its 
rudder and mules. When Rheinart and Wight got 
through with them, they went into hospital with thirty- 
three wounds to look after. They only found two 
teams there with more scars. One of them they ciphered 
out to be Gurley and Cherry, of Denver, scarcely 
recognizable for bandages, the other, swathed entirely 
out of sight, the surgeon said were the Briggs brothers, 
of Minneapolis. The rest of the ward was full of 
cripples with from twenty to thirty pretty tough wounds. 



VII. 
GROUP OF EASTERN CLUBS. 

The Washington^ D. C. Clubs: The Bicycle, The Chess, 
Checker and Whist, and The Colurabia Athletic Clubs — 
The Owl Club, of St, Albans, Vt.— Sketch of A. G. 
Safford — The Cherry Diamond Whist Club — The 
Manhattan Whist Club— The Albany Club. 

G. Safford represented four prominent Clubs at 
'*the Congress, namely, "The Bicycle Club," "The 
Chess, Checker and Whist Club," "The Columbia 
Athletic Club," of Washington, D. C, and " The Owl 
Club," of St. Albans, Vermont. 

Mr. Safford took an important part in the proceedings 
of the Congress, botii on the floor and in the committee 
rooms, and as he is an official of the League and an un- 
mitigated whist fiend, with the higher interests of the 
game always in mind, a brief outline of his active career 
will have interest for the fraternity. 

He was born in St. Albans, Vermont, in 1844, was 
educated at the University of Vermont, entered the 
army in '63 and served until July '65 in the Military 
Telegraph Corps. He was made chief operator of the 
Department in '64, and was at Gen. Grant's Headquar- 
ters, City Point, Va., until the surrender of Lee. 

After the war he studied law, and was admitted to 
the bar in September, '67, and practiced law in Vermont 



138 WHIST SKETCHES. 

coDtinuously until 1886, when he removed to Washing- 
ton, D. C, and engaged in general practice. Among 
his clients is the Inter-State Commerce Commission, 
whose business in the courts he attends to. 

Politically, Mr. Safford represented hisnativecounty — 
Franklin — in the Senate of the Vermont Legislature in 
1880, and for many years he was identified with the 
administration of the public schools of his State, insist- 
ing that it w^as the duty of the State to furnish free a 
sufficient education to all its inhabitants to enable tliem 
to understand and exercise the duty of citizenship 
properly. 

So far as wdiist is concerned, Mr. Safford claims his 
experience has not been great. Be that as it may, his 
whist practice shows that he has not neglected such 
opportunities as he has had. 

He has for many years advocated the study and prac- 
tice of the game as a means of mental discipline, 
believing it to rank among the potent factors in that 
regard, quite equal to the discipline of the study of the 
higher mathematics, but yielding an education of a 
more useful character practically, that is to say, that of 
thinking quickly and acting surely. 

Mr. Safford never played in a match game until he 
struck the straight-away cyclone in Milwaukee, in which 
he was " up-ended '^ like most of his brother delegates. 
Since then he has played in two important matches, one 
of them being the match in duplicate between the Cherry 
Diamond Club, of New^ York, and the Hamilton Club, 
of Philadelphia, in which Messrs. Safford, Maynard^ 



WIIIST SKETCHES. 139 

Creamer and Streeter, of the Cherry Diamonds, defeated 
by four points Messrs. Townsend and Townsend, Remak 
and Ballard, of the Hamiltons, in a sitting of sixteen 
hands and their overplay. The second was a match in 
• which he and eleven players sat against twelve players 
of the Capital Bicycle Club, and were beaten. Mr. 
SafFord's standing, with that of bis partner, in the con- 
test w-as plus two. 

Personally, Mr. Safford is one of the most genial of 
men, and whist cranks will always find pleasure in 
meeting him. 

THE OWL CLUB. 

The Owl Club, of St. i^lbans, Vermont, was organ- 
ized in 1886. It is a social club with a resident mem- 
bership limit of one hundred and twenty-five. Its 
constitution prohibits the use of intoxicating liquors or 
the playing of games for money on the club premises. 
Wliist forms one of the prominent features of the club. 

It has 114 resident members and 17 non-resident 
members. 

'Its officers are President, Silas W. Cummings; Vice 
President, Ahira S. Richardson ; Treasurer, Chas. H. 
Anderson ; Secretary, Arthur R. Sabin. 

A. G. Saiford represented it at the Congress. 

THE CHERRY DIAMOKD WHIST CLUB. 

The Cherry Diamond Whist Club, of New York 
City, was organized in April, just before the first Amer- 
ican W^hist Congress, and was an attempt to concentrate 
the scattering interest in whist that already existed 



140 WHIST SKETCHES. 

among the 3,000 members of the Manhattan Athletic 
Club. It is managed by a Board of Five Governors, 
M. H. Elkin, President ; R. F. Foster, Secretary and 
Treasurer, and three others, J. E. Wood, W. IT. Smith 
and H. P. Pike. There are no dues, but an initiation 
fee of $2 is charged, which goes into a fund for prizes 
and sundries. The management give two tournaments 
each Winter, one from September to January 1st; the 
other from January to May 1st. Six prizes are given 
in cash ; four for the four first men in the point of high 
scores, and two for the two highest in the duplicate 
whist. The returns from the score-cards are posted 
every week on the bulletin board in the card-room. 
The club now has about 180 members, and the score- 
cards show an average daily attendance of 21. The 
nominal stake of fifty cents a game is the club stake for 
regular whist, and twenty-five cents a trick for duplicate. 
This club scores only one side in duplicate whist, folding 
down the score card and scoring the other side for the 
overplay. The gains are then marked, showing the 
number of tricks won, which is much simpler than the 
double entry of the Kalamazoo method. The club has 
only played one important match, in which it defeated 
the Hamilton Club of Ptiiladelphia by four points, envh 
club being represented by four players. 

THE MANHATTAN WHIST CLUB. 

The Manhattan Whist Club, of New York, was 
organized as a branch of the Manhattan Chess Club in 
March, 1889, with T. M. Tyng as President, and R. F. 



WHIST SKETCHES. 141 

Foster as Secretary. It was intended to meet the de- 
mand for a chance to play cards sometimes made by 
the chess players. Owing to the large German element 
in the club, whist was very little j)layed, scat being the 
chief game, with some penuchle and bezique. No pro- 
vision having been made for prizes or tournaments, and 
the club being generally regarded as a mere appendage 
to the chess club it was never a success, and although 
represented at the Firt-t American Whist Congress, never 
joined the League. R. F. Foster was its representative 
at the Congress. 

THE ALBANY CLUB. 

The Albany Club, of Albany, New York, is a general 
social organization, but has organized among its mem- 
bers a Whist Union containing twenty-two players on 
its roll. Its President is E. Leroy Smith, and its Sec- 
retary and Treasurer Henry Whiting Garfield. The 
Union has a committee on play, and its whist nights are 
Wednesday and Saturday. Its President, Mr. Smith, 
and Harrington Lodge, Jr., two strong players, repre- 
sented their club at the Congress. In the straight- 
away cyclone, against President Elliott and Hall, their 
score was only four points off. It would hardly have 
been courteous in them to throw their President. This 
streak of courtesy on the part of all the delegates to the 
Milwaukee players, however, was very marked and 
uniform. 



VIII. 
CHICAGO CLUBS. 

Englewood and Chicago Whist Clubs — Theodore Schwars 
• — The Wahpanseh Club — H. B. Herr — The Park 
Club Whist Association — The P. D. Q. Whist Club — 
Its Members — The Illinois Club — The American Whist 
Club — The Ashland Club — The Chicago Duplicate 
Whist Club — The Evanston Whist Club — The Hyde 
Park Whist Club — The Kenwood Whist Club — The 
Oak Park Whist Club — The University Club. 

'he Englewood and Chicago Whist Clubs. — 
Theodore Schwarz, the President of the Englewood 
Club, Chicago, took an influential part in the proceed- 
ings of the Congress, both in the discussions on the floor 
and work in the committee rooms. He was one of the 
most thoroughly informed men on whist literature in 
the Congress, and his whist practice being as thorough, 
they gave force to his opinions and recommendations. 
He was chairman of the Committee on Laws, and is the 
Corresponding Secretary of the League. 

Since the Congress, Mi'. Schwarz has been instru- 
mental in organizing the whist forces of Chicago into 
a special whist club. The organization has been effected, 
and it begins its career with 300 members, under the 
name of " The Chicago Whist Club/' vvith Theodore 
Schwarz as President, and Geo. W. Keehn as Secretary. 

The Milwaukee Sentinel said of Mr. Schwarz : 



WHIST SKETCHES. 143 

"Mr. Theodore Sehwarz, of the Englewood Chib, is 
the President of that organization, and is its bright and 
shining light. He has had a large experience with 
whist, and knows many clubs and players. After having 
seen the Milwaukee Whist Club })lay several times, he 
thinks that it is the strongest one in the United States. 
He is an authority on laws and rules, is patient when 
playing, never gets rattled, and is a hard man to beat. 
J. H. Fairchild, also of the Englewood Club, is a 
brilliant player. He is not such a stickler for rules as 
Mr. Sehwarz, but plays a strong garae.'^ 

THE WAHPANSEH CLUB. 

The Wahpanseh Whist and Chess Club, Chicago, was 
organized, in 1889, to develop and perfect the game of 
American Whist, and instruct its members in the science 
thereof; to study chess and kindred scientific games. 
Its roll registers something over fifty members. 

The whist to be played, the laws of the game, and the 
general rules for players adopted by this club, are those 
set forth in " American Whist Illustrated.'^ 

The Wahpanseh Club interpret these latvs literally, 
and during play do not allow silence broken, or any of 
the cited manifestations or irregularities. Their in- 
fringement incurs the penalty of a point for each offense. 

The lady friends of members of the club are privileged 
to the use of the club on Wednesday afternoon. 

Its officers are : President, Hiero B. Herr ; Vice 
President, Simeon H. Crane ; Secretary, Percy B. Herr; 
Treasurer, A. E. Mattison. 

Its delegates to the Congress were Hiero B. Herr and 
Philander Pickering. 



144 WHIST SKETCHES. 

THE PAEK CLUB WHIST ASSOCIATION 

Is an organization that was formed, in 1888, within the 
Park Club, 57th and Rosalie Court, South Chicago, 
with Henry N. Parry as its first President. The mem- 
bership has varied between 16 and 30, the present 
roll numbering 22. 

The club has the best record for consecutive victories 
of any Chicago whist organization, having won nine 
straight contests. Some of the best whist talent in 
Chicago is to be found in the club. It is a member and 
staunch supporter of the League, and its doors are 
hospitably open for all League whist players who may 
be in the city. The members are much interested in the 
new whist club Mr. Schwarz, the Secretary of the 
League, is organizing in the city, in the quarters of 
which the members hope to be able to hold the Congress 
in 1893. 

The President of the club is J. W. B. Frazer, Secre- 
tary and Treasurer, F. W. Hamill. Henry N. Parry 
represented it at the Congress. Mr. Parry was one of 
the team of four delegates that won the contest with the 
Milwaukee team after the Orndorif system of duplicate. 

THE P. D. Q. WHIST CLUB, 

Of Chicago, is a private organization for whist exclu- 
sively. Its members make up just four tables. They 
play careful deliberate w^hist, with regard for their 
scores, which decide the winners of two prizes which 
are a part of each winter's programme, hence the club 
acquired its title from grounds of more substance than 



WHIST SKETCHES. 145 

the lightning or raih'oad quality of its play. The club 
opens each fall's campaign with a banquet, meets weekly 
at the home of one of its members in stated order, plays 
good whist and also has good times. 

Every member is an officer, and its roster runs as 
follows: W. W. Augur, President; J. A. Barber, 
Treasurer ; C. V. Kasson, Secretary ; J. G. Coleman, 
Chaplain ; C. E. Deane, Monkey Monk ; C. IN". Fessen- 
den, Major Domo ; G. F. Fiske, Surgeon ; M. Hutch- 
inson, The Doctor; M. E. Schmidt, Bottle Holder; 
Wm. Sprague, The Silent; J. L. Waller, Major General ; 
W. Waller, The Prize Winner; D. P. Wilkinson, The 
Cuckoo ; J. Wilkinson, The Bawler ; T. Campbell, 
High Private; S, A. Lynde, His Honor. 

C. V. Kasson was delegate to the Congress. 

ILLINOIS CLUB. 

The Illinois Club, Chicago, is a social club with a 
membership of about four hundred. A large number 
of the members play whist, but give no special attention 
to quality of play. 

There are in the club, however, five tables at which 
the higher order of play prevails. 

L. D. Hammond, Isaac H. Holden, M. W. Borland 
and Wm. F. James represented the Illinois at the 
Congress. 

AMEKICAN WHIST CLUB, CHICAGO. 

This club was organized the present summer exclu- 
sively as a whist club, to play scientific whist. It has 
adopted the system set forth in " American Whist Illus- 



146 WHIST SKETCHES. 

trated '' as the authority for play. The club starts with 
fourteen members, one half of whom are from the 
expert players of the Illinois club. L. E. Jenkins, an 
expert of the Deschapelles Club, Boston, is on its roll. 
Lyman D. Hammond, President; \Vm. F.James, Vice 
President ; W. C. Coe, Secretary and Treasurer. 

OTHER CHICAGO CLUBS. 

The other Chicago clubs represented at the Congress 
were : 

The. Ashland Club.— A. V. Booth. 

Chicago Duplicate Whist Club. — F. C. Hale, P. R. 
Jedkins. 

Evanston Whist Club. — A. N. Young, E. H. Reed, 
Jno. E. Burke, Martin M. Gridley, Jno. E. Childs. 
Hyde Park Whist Club.—R^mj E. Fisk. 
Kenwood Whist Club. — E. G. Shumway, H. E. Fisk. 

Oah Park Whist Club.—W. A. Hutchinson, A. H. 
Standish, R. W. Goodwillie, Ed. T. Johnson, T. G. 
Morris. 

University Club. — H. S. Stevens, Theo. Sheldon, S. A . 
Snyder, S. T. French, J. S. Waller, F. P. Hall, G. F. 
Fiske. 



IX. 

MINNESOTA CLUBS. 

Sketches of the Min7\eopolis Chess, Checker and Whist 
Club, and of the St. Paul Whist Club — The Union 
League Club of Minneapolis. 

HE Minneapolis Chess, Checker and Whist 
Club. — This club, as its name implies, is given to 
games of skill. Whist comes last on its title, but it is 
a case of the last shall become first, and whist is the 
predominating feature of the club. It has now about 
one hundred aud twenty-five members, but such an 
impetus has been given to whist that the membership is 
expected to reach two hundred before the close of the 
year. The club takes great interest in whist and has a 
number of strong players. It had a tournament this 
summer of straight-ahead whist in which twenty-five 
teams took part, each team playing twenty-five hands 
against every other team, and this contest was followed 
by a duplicate tournament. 

O. IT. Briggs and J. H. Briggs were the representa- 
tives to the Congress, and if it hadn't been for them, the 
irrepressible Gurley and his partner Cherry, of Denver, 
would have carried first place in the tilt of Milwaukee 
against all America at straight whist. 

It was Minneapolis and Denver alone that blocked 
the Pomfrets from first honors. However, third place 



148 ' WHIST SKETCHES. 

is not entirely barren of credit in a tilt of fifty-two 
teams. 

The Briggs brothers play the advanced system, and 
put up a strong game. They stayed over after the Con- 
gress to give Milwaukee the opportunity of revenge at 
duplicate, but Milwaukee failed to take advantage of it. 
Duplicate contests against three of Milwaukee's best 
pairs resulted, one a tie, and two for the Briggs Brothers 
by three and eleven points respectively. 

The officers of the club are : President, Nelson P. 
Whiting ; Vice President, Harry P. Robinson ; Secre- 
tary, C. H. Brinsmaid ; Treasurer, Frank S. Lewis. 

THE UNION LEAGUE CLUB 

of Minneapolis, was represented at the Congress by E. 
Lincoln Parke. 

ST. PAUL WHIST CLUB. 

BY W. S. HAY. 

The St. Paul Chess, Checkers and Whist Club, St. 
Paul, Minn., was organized in September, 1887, by 
eighteen enthusiasts of the games named. Its leading 
spirits were devotees of chess rather than lovers of the 
other two games ; so the club, at its start, was little more 
than a chess club. The addition of new members and 
the inherent fascinations of whist rapidly changed the 
club characteristics. By the operations of other causes, 
checkers was almost entirely neglected, and chess became 
a secondary consideration. 

That period in the life of all similar societies, where 
financial difficulties beset, was happily of short duration. 



WHIST SKETCHES. 149 

After a few months existence, the membership had 
reached a point where the income exceeded the expenses. 
From this point the growth of the club was uniform ; 
each quarter finding an increased surplus in the treasury. 
This was accomplished, notwithstanding the small initia- 
tion fee of ^5.00 and the annual dues of $15.00. 

The domestic life has been remarkably free from 
internal dissensions. This is doubtlessly due, in a large 
measure, to the wisdom of the founders in prohibiting 
the playing of any game in the club rooms for a pecu- 
niary consideration, or for a wager of any kind. A 
fruitful source of ill-fteling among the members was 
thereby guarded against, and no attraction was offered 
to a class of players who cultivate the games from other 
than the best motives. The introduction of any intoxi- 
icating drinks into the club rooms was also prohibited, 
and experience seems to prove this to have been a wise 
restriction. 

The government of the club is entrusted to a board of 
directors, consisting of the five officers and four directors 
elected at a general club meeting, semi-annually. All 
routine business is transacted by this board, and only mat- 
ters of greater importance are brought before the club. 

The quarters originally selected were soon outgrown, 
and the entire third floor of a building was secured and 
comfortably furnished. This gave the club a home in 
one of the most convenient and central portions of the 
city, No. 48 E. Fourth street, and in a modern building, 
the third floor being designed by an architect member 
for the purpose. 



150 WHIST SKETCHES. 

Notwithstanding the constantly moving and restless 
character of the population of a western city, as shown 
by there being only five of the original eighteen charter 
members still in the club, the membership has shown a 
steady growth. Tlie report of the treasurer at a meeting 
held in September, 1891, shows seventy active members 
and several pending applications. The character and 
the high individual standing of the members in social, 
professional, political and business circles indicate the 
extent of the club's influence, and the place it has 
secured in the city's life. It is pointed to with pride by 
the citizens, and its doings are considered entitled to 
lengthy notices by the local daily papers. The Governor 
of the State, the leading lawyers, the wealthiest and 
most prominent business men are included in its list of 
members, and the proficiency they exhibit in their 
favorite amusement demonstrates that a rational love for 
a cultivation of an intellectual game does not constitute 
a handicap in the more important game of life. 

One of the chief features in the growth and develop- 
ment of the club has been the annual contest with the 
similar organization of the sister city of Minneapolis. 
Each of the past three winters has witnessed a friendly 
contest at whist between the tw^o clubs. The number of 
tables engaged has varied, but has been sufficient to 
include practically the entire membership of each club, 
and the contest has been extremely close. 

The winters of '88 and '89 brought victory to Min- 
neapolis, but St. Paul redeemed her reputation by 
winning an exciting and close contest during the winter 



WHIST SKETCHES. 161 

of '90. In a total score of 13,725 points, St. Paul won 
by 119 points. 

These contests have excited very general interest in 
each of the two cities, and have been the means of 
increasing ihe membership of both clubs. 

The present officers of the club are : R. W. Ransom, 
President; Geo. L. Bunn, Vice President; A. T. Net- 
tleton, Treasurer ; D, S. Sperry, Librarian ; W. C 
Handy, Secretary, and O. M. Metcalf, J. W. Krappel, 
W. S. Hay and G. M. Orr, Directors. 

W. S. Hay was the Milwaukee representative. 

The club rooms are always open to non resident lovers 
of either of its three games, and members of similar 
clubs in other cities are especially welcome. 



X. 



A GROUP OF WESTERN CLUBS. 

The Wausau Club — The Oshkosh Whist Club — The 
Detroit Whist Club — The Indianapolis Whist Club — 
The Waukesha Club — The Hillasdle Whist Club — The 
Commercial Club of Dubuque. 

HE Wausau Club. — The whist club of Wausau, 
Wis., has had an informal existence for about eight 
years, during which time it has had a number of local 
tournaments and has taken part in two matches; one 
with the Oshkosh Club, winning in both an afternoon 
and an evening session, and the other with the Mil- 
\vaukee Club, won by the latter by a very slender 
majority — as close a call as those Invincibles ever had ! 
In February, 1891, the Wausau Whist Club was reg- 
ularly organized with fifty members, L. A. Pradt being 
President and E. B. Sanders, Secretary. A full delega- 
tion to the Whist Congress at Milwaukee was chosen, 
but John Ringle was the only one in attendance. He 
proved a most redoubtable representative, however, as 
the record of his play bears witness. Mr. Ringle is, 
probably, the strongest player in the club, although not 
as much of a student of the authorities as some others of 
the club, notably the President and Secretary. The 
club can muster a team of a dozen players of about equal 
strength with Mr. Ringle that could tackle an equal 



WHIST SKETCHES. 153 

number from any other organization with a good chance 
of victory, so they think at least, and are willing to test 
conclusions at any time. 

THE OSHKOSH 'WHIST CLUB. 

The enterprising City of Oshkosh, Wisconsin, shows 
the interest taken in whist by a whist club of forty-two 
members who are devoted to the interests of the game, 
and are open for trials of skill with other clubs. Its 
officers are Geo. W. Burnell, President ; A. B. Hooper, 
Secretary. The delegates to the Milwaukee Congress 
were Geo. W. Burnell, F. G. Josslyn, Geo. B. Adams? 
Henry A. Jewell. 

DETROIT WHIST CLUB. 

The Detroit W^hist Club, Michigan, has twenty mem- 
bers on its roll. It is exclusively a whist organization. 

W. P. Stewart represented it at the Congress. He 
was one of the tliree delegates who tied for the Streeter 
diamond medal in the duplicate contest. Mr. Stewart 
is described by Mr. Foster as being the best partner he 
ever played with. He is well up on the rules, plays 
steadily, and does not get tired when he has a poor hand. 
No matter how weak his hand is, he plays it so as to 
give his partner every possible assistance. Mr. Stewart 
was prominent in the parliamentary proceedings of the 
Congress, and made several very sensible suggestions as 
to the proceedings. He likes the game for the merit 
there is in it, and works continually for its advance- 
ment. 



154 WHIST SKETCHES. 

INDIANAPOLIS WHIST CLUB. 

The Indianapolis Whist Club is strictly a whist or- 
ganization. It takes great interest in the game, and 
numbers many fine players: They play the Cavendish 
leads, though some prefer the American system. Their 
regular whist night is Saturday, and if a member absents 
himself for three successive Saturday nights without 
sickness or excuse he forfeits his membership. 

The members number thirty-one. A record of all 
play is kept and members are graded according to their 
percentage of games and points won and lost. Mr. 
Moores leads in rank the present year, and Dr. Cominger 
is next, (the Dr. has held the palm for several years 
past.) Mr. Herron has fourth place. The two latter, 
with H. Bates, Sr., E. R. Lewis, E. W. Anderson and 
Geo. N. Catterson, were the congressional delegates, 
Next to the University Club, Chicago, this club sent the 
largest representation to the Congress. 

In the Milw^aukee cyclone, Cominger and Catterson 
were one of the pairs that " faced the breeze." They 
knocked just 27 points out of its wind. 

THE WAUKESHA CLUB, 

Of Waukesha, Wisconsin, is a social organization with 
fifty-two members. While not a whist club, whist is 
one of its prominent features, and since the Congress, 
more attention has been given to it and its scientific fea- 
tures, with the endeavor to have a higher order of play 
prevail. 

Its officers are President, J. M. Braden ; Vice Pres- 



WHIST SKETCHES. 155 

ident, Col. H. M. Enoe ; Secretary, H. E. Blair; 
Treasurer, B. R. Estburg. Its delegates to the Congress 
were J. R. Boyd, D. C. James, W. G. Mann. 

THE CARTHAGE, (ILL.) WHIST CLUB. 

This is exclusively a club of whist players whose aim 
is to play the best quality of whist. It was organized 
in 1879. It numbers just one dozen members, and 
among tliem are some strong players, while they all play 
good whist. Edward Cherrill, cashier of the Exchange 
Bank of Carthage, is its President; John Elder, Treas- 
urer ; Stephen H. Ferris, Secretary. Edward Cherrill 
and Mack Sholl were its delegates to the Congress. 

HILLSDALE WHIST CLUB. 

The Hillsdale, (Mich.) Whist Club is exclusively a 
whist club. Its membership is not large, but it has an 
octette of strong players. The club has a special plan of 
playing duplicate for single table and for two. tables. 
Mr. S. C. Rowlson, Editor of the Hillsdale Standard, 
has prepared a description of the system for publication. 
S. C. Rowlson and H. T. Buchanan were its delegates 
to the Congress. 

THE COxMMERCIAL CLUB, 

Of Dubuque, Iowa, was represented by B. L. Richards. 
He made an alliance with Everard, the Kalamazoo Du- 
plicate Tray man, to confuse the Milwaukee Cyclone. 
But, like the Texas rain man's scheme, it failed to 
materialize, and they weathered the breeze just 26 points 
to the bad. Everard said a Kalamazoo duplicate cyclone 
would straighten out all such kinks as these. 



XI. 

A TRIST APPENDIX. 

Additional of Trist and his Quai^iette, Kennedy, Hare 
and Bnngier — Three Experts who have Visited his 
Club: W. J. Whaley, of Charleston, S. C, R, A, 
Gurley, of Denver, and Lieutenant Niles, U. S. A. — 
The Late Richard A. Proctor^ s Whist Traits — The 
Chess Champions, Steinitz and Zukertort^s Whist — 
Steinitz Plays Seven Games of Chess and a Game of 
Whist, Blindfolded, at One Time. 

MUTUAL friend to whom we sent the advance sheets 
of the sketch of Mr. Trist, one who has the excel- 
lent habit of taking notes on interesting subjects, has 
kindly sent us an abstract of them, from which we take 
pleasure in making up an appendix to the Trist sketch 
in such directions as we have not specially followed. 
So little, comparatively, has been published of the 
whist life and whist associations of Mr. Trist that 
additional matter of this character will find a welcome 
reception with the whist world. 

Our mutual friend thinks that from our estimate of 
Mr. Trist the inference might be drawn that personally 
he is somewhat formal or austere. But, as our estimate 
referred chiefly to his whist characteristics and whist 
table deportment, we do not think the opinion tenable. 
Mr. Trist's deportment at the whist table is simply that 



WHIST SKETCHES. 157 

which every good player observes, or should observe. 
Beyond that, in his business life, and with his friends, 
he is a man among men, and one with \vhom it is agree- 
able to associate in any relation. 

In talking of his whist, Mr. Trist will i^ot claim for 
hiaiself or his quartette the position of players of the 
first rank. Still, when pressed on the subject, he 
admits that, with the exception, perhaps, of Mr. W. J. 
Whaley, of Charleston, S. C, now residing in Birming- 
ham, Ala., no visitors at the N. O. Whist Club from 
this country or Europe have, in his estimation, proved 
quite equal to the local players in the quality of their 
play. He ranks among the strongest, Mr. R. A. Gurley, 
of Denver, Col., and Lieutenant Niles, U. S. A. ; also 
Mr. John Kheinart, of Milwaukee, who, Mr. Trist 
says, does not appear to follow any conventional system, 
but plays a very strong common sense game. 

He also played a whole afternoon with the late Rich- 
ard A. Proctor, the celebrated astronomer, a writer on 
whist of some repute, and a genial gentleman. His play 
did not come up to Mr. Trist's expectations ; he had a 
singular way of sorting his cards by putting each suit 
separately between the fingers of his left hand. This 
habit certainly denoted an unsuspicious disposition, for 
anyone at the table could count the number of cards in 
suits as sandwiched between his digits. Mr. Trist has 
alvso played whist frequently with the celebrated chess 
champions, Steinitz and Zukertort, who have at different 
times visited New Orleans under engagements with the 



158 WHIST SKETCHES. 

Chess and Whist Chib, and who finished, under the 
auspices of the club, their great match for the chess 
championship of the world. They were both devoted 
to whist, and it was amusing to see with what eagerness 
they would listen to the card room for a rubber, when- 
ever their arrangement with the club in regard to chess 
play permitted them to do so. They appeared not to be 
well grounded in the rules of play, but soon showed 
considerable improvement in that respect after practicing 
wnth the best players of the club, and, as they had 
i^etentive memories, they played fairly \vell by the time 
of their departure. 

Steinitz on one occasion gave an exhibition of his 
blindfold play. He varied the usual performance by 
playing a hand at whist, at intervals of about ten 
minutes, in order to show that he could turn his attention 
to other matters without losing the thread of the various 
combinations of the seven games which he was carrying 
on simultaneously. Mr. Trist was his partner in this 
novel exhibition, and testifies to the effect that Steinitz' 
play of the cards was very accurate, considering the fact 
that he was carrying in some recess of his mind the 
pictures of seveirchess boards, with the men grouped or 
scattered thereon in an infinite variety of positions. 

Our informant rates Mr. Kennedy among the very first 
ranks of whist adepts. At the time of his visits to New 
Orleans, the other two members of the quartette, Messrs. 
Hare and Bringier, had already left their native State. 

Mr. Trist said to him that Hare's style of play is to 



WHIST SKETCHES. 159 

a remarkable degree similar to Kennedy's, and that he 
is specially skilful in the management of trumps, and 
that Bringier is a more deliberate player than either, 
is equally strong, and generally more observant of the 
minor details of the hands. 



XII. 
"CAVENDISH." 

Biography of Henry Jones, ^^ Cavendish ^^ — His College 
Days — As an M. D. — His Literary Life — His Whist 
Life — Founding the ^''Little SchooV^ — Dr. Pole and 
James Clay — As a Writer on Whist — First Edition of 
'"^Cavendish" — The Portland Club. 

jENRY Jones was born in London, England, oi> 
November 2. 1831. At nine years of age he wa& 
sent to King^s College School, Londan, England, where 
as be says of himself, he was more conspicuous for 
attention to duty in the play ground than in the clasii 
room. Partly for the benefit of his health, he was 
removed to a private school at Brighton. Ai the age 
of eighteen he entered as a student at St. Bartholomew's 
Hospital, London, England, where he did good work, 
and was for a year dresser to the distinguished siirgeon,. 
Sir William Lawrence, Bart. Passing his examinations- 
immediately afte/ he was of age, he at once commenced 
his professional career, and remained in active practice 
in London for about twenty years, when, finding it 
impossible to carry y)n both medical and literary engage- 
ments, he decided to relinquish the former. Since 
retiring from his first profession he has devoted himself 
to literature. He has edited the card and pastime de- 
partments of The Field ue\vs[)aper for twenty-eight 




HENRY JONES. "CAVENDISH." 



WHIST SKETCHES. 161 

years, and the pastime department of The Queen news- 
paper for about twenty-six years, and has contributed 
numerous articles — principally on games — to various 
first-class magazines, periodicals, encyclopaedias and 
dictionaries. 

Always fond of games, Mr. Jones began to study 
whist seriously about the year 1854 or 1855. It was 
then that the " Little School," immortalised by Dr. Pole, 
F. R. S., began to hold its meetings, and to make its 
notes, and to refer doubtful points to James Clay, M. P., 
the most brilliant player of his day. The rest of the 
story is well-known. In 1861, Dr. Pole suggested in a 
magazine that it would be a boon to whist players if 
hands at whist were published. Mr. Jones sent the 
notes of the Little School to Dr. Pole, who urged print. 
In 1862 appeared the first edition of " Cavendish " on 
whist, the consequence of Dr. Pole's suggestion. Mr. 
Jones was at the time a member of a small club, the 
Cavendish Club, where he played whist, and, without 
giving the matter of pseudonym much thought, he put 
the name of his club on the title page. Shortly after- 
wards Mr. Jones became a member of the Portland 
Club, where he now plays frequently. It is hardly 
necessary to state that The Portland has been for over a 
century the acknowledged temple of European whist. 

In addition to his fondness for the games themselves, 
it has been a hobby of Mr. Jones's to make a special study 
of their laws. When the English code of whist laws 
was written (in 1863, adopted in 1864), Mr. Jones was 
not invited to co-operate. But, on subsequent occasions, 



162 WHIST SKETCHES. 

(revision of Laws of Piquet, Ecarte, Rubicon, Bezique, 
Croquet, and Lawn Tennis,) he has been a member of 
the various committees to whom the production of the 
codes has been entrusted. 

He is the only European who is an honorary member 
of the American Whist League. 



XIII. 

WHIST CONTRASTS. 

A Suggestion for Teachers of Whist, an Original Paper 
Prepared for " Whist Sketches " 

BY '* CAVENDISH." 

jITt may seem presumptuous in me, not having had any 
j^ experience in oral teaching, to suggest to professional 
teachers of whist any departure from, or any addition to, 
their present, and, no doubt, well conducted, methods. 
Nevertheless, I make bold to venture on a suggestion 
which appears to me might be adopted, and which, as it 
kills two birds with one stone, reduces by about one-half, 
the effort of memory required to master leads, play of 
second hand, and so forth. My notion, such as it is, 
may be summed up in two words — Whist Contrasts. 

To take some examples. The learner at whist is told 
to lead ace from five in suit, but the smallest from four, 
unless ace is accompanied by queen, knave, when he is 
to lead ace from four in suit. He has two things to 
remember. If these two things are brought before his 
eye together and simultaneously, the one helps him to 
recollect the other. At least, I think so. 

Suppose, for instance, a large diagram is prepared, as 
follows: — 



164 



WHIST SKETCHES. 







IA 




♦ *♦ 




^ ^ 




♦ ^* 


4^*^ 






* ' ♦ 




A A 




^♦^ 


^^1^ 




i/fPfl-W^, 






1 A ' 




^ ^ 


^W^ 




/^W\ 




♦ . t 




t ' ♦ 




^ 






l^^3 




^^ ^ 




4(k 4^ 




♦ ♦ 




It is pointed out to the pupil that in both cases he 
leads the ace ; that the cards below the queen in the first 
case are immaterial ; and that the card below the knave 
in the second case is immaterial ; but that the number 
of cards in the suit is not immaterial. He leads the ace 
in the first case because he has five in suit, and in the 
second case because he has queen and knave. 

Now suppose the teacher takes suits headed by king^ 
queen. I am not going to argue what is the best lead 
from king, queen, more than four in suit, but I will 
assume that the teaching is to be queen. Then : — 




9? <^ 






I9 ^ 




^^^ 

^^^ 




^ 9? 





9 



^ 



9? ^ 



The pupil is told to lead queen from the first combin- 
ation ; king from the second combination ; and his 
attention is drawn to the difference in number. I have 



WHIST SKETCHES. 



165 



put the ten in the third place, because then the lead is 
the same in trumps as in plain suits ; but the pupil 
should be informed that at present, trump leads are not 
under consideration. He may also be informed that the 
knave is purposely omitted from the first diagram, as at 
present only king, queen leads are being explained. 
Leads from king, queen, knave will require another 
diagram. 

Similarly with suits headed by ace, king, queen. Say, 



4- 




^ 








4-*4- 




♦ 4- 




4.^4. 

4» 4* 



In the first case queen, then ace, is led ; in the second 
case king, then queen. Attentioti would be drawn to 
the difference in number. 

Of course, the above is only a rough sketch. It is 
very likely that I have not chosen the best examples. 
Perhaps a better first example would be ace and four 
small, contrasted with ace and three small. Such details 
must be left to the ingenuity of the individual preceptor. 
Anyhow, if the pupil is shown that number greatly 
influences choice of card, he will have learnt a useful 
lesson, and his eye will have been enlisted as well as 
his ear. 



166 



WHIST SKETCHES. 



I will conclude with one example from second hand 
play. The diagram would be, say : — 




o 
o 



1 


1 




1 










A small diamond is led. I need hardly add that 
with four in suit the lowest is played ; with three in 
suit, the knave. The small cards, if ten is not in 
sequence with knave in the first case, are ini material. 

The application of the system of contrasts would be 
troublesome in the case of the third hand, as, in many 
instances, the third player's strength in trumps is an 
element. Napoleon's definition of a difficulty was, I 
believe, that which must be overcome. If my sugges- 
tion finds favor with any teachers of whist in America, 
I may safely leave it to them to apply the above 
definition. 

Before laying down my pen, I should like to impress 
on whist novices the absolute necessity of mugging up, 
as school boys call it, the ordinary leads, and play of 
second and third hands. These once thoroughly known, 
all that is wanted to make a really good player is prac- 
tice and perception. If I have, even in a slight degree, 
helped by the above suggestion to diminish the labor of 
mugging up, I shall feel amply rewarded. 



WHIST SKETCHES. 



167 



[Note — Mr. Jones, in his letter accompanying the 
above interesting paper, tells how the idea of " Whist 
Contrasts" was suggested to him, and, as this also has 
interest, we take the liberty of printing that part which 
refers to it : — The idea has been before me for some time, 
but I have never put it into shape. I knew in learning 
anatomy how important it is to have the relation of 
things under the eye. Hence the use of dissecting. 
This started the notion. I said to myself, tell a man to 
lead ace from five, smallest from four headed by ace, 
and as likely as not he will forget it in five minutes. 
He will come and say, " Which is it, 4 or 5, I am to 
lead ace from ?" But put them together like this, 






Lead ace. 



I \¥'^ pr^ "4" 
I k »l W ♦I » 



Lead lowest. 



And it remains fixed on his memory.] 



XIV. 
JAMES CLAY. 

Incidents in his Whist Life— Anecdotes — His Whist 
Practice and Customs. Prepared for Whist Sketches 
by a Member of his Family. 

'he following interesting reminiscences of the late 
James Clay, the type of the ideal whist tempera- 
ment, a man admitted to be the whist authority, and 
the finest player of his day in England, was kindly 
prepared for these sketches by a member of Mr. Clay's 
family, himself a fine player, now in this country: 

Mr. James Clay was not only the finest whist player 
of his day, but a distinguished politician also. He was 
for thirty years member of Parliament for Hull, and, 
despite the difference of their politics, the life-long friend 
of Lord Beaconsfield, whose writings are full of affec- 
tionate allusions to his old friend, James Clay. 

The value of Mr. Clay's contributions to the progress 
of whist is indisputable. His treatise on whist is the 
most logical, succinct and pleasantly written little book, 
and the whist laws draw^n up by a committee of which 
he was chairman, and which practically owe their exist- 
ence to his suggestion and advice, were adopted not only 
in England and the European capitals, but also in this 
country. In fact, they remain practically undisturbed 
to this day. 



WHIST SKETCHES. 169 

Mr. Clay was the most admirable type of the old- 
fashioned card player — suave, courteous and impertur- 
bable. An excellent and faithful portrait is made of 
him (under the name of Mr. Castlemaine) in '^ Guy 
Livingstone/' which was one of the most popular 
romances of the day. A remark is put into the mouth 
of Mr. Castlemaine which was, in fact, actually made 
by Mr. Clay, and is quoted in England as being the 
nearest approach to a rebuke to his partner which he 
was ever known to utter. His partner had made terrible 
havoc with a hand, owing to an imprudent lead of a 
singleton, and the sentence is as follows : " It is compu- 
ted," said Mr. Castlemaine, looking thoughtfully at the 
ceiling, " that there are upwards of two thousand young 
Englishmen of good family, and born to brilliant pros- 
pects, who are now wandering shoe-less about the 
Continent, because they would not lead trumps, having 

five r 

These, of course, were the days of high play in 
England. The ordinary points were £5 a point, ($25), 
and a bet of £25 ($125) on the rubber. Mr. Clay, 
however, used to play the points only, and give his bets 
away to some old friend, generally Admiral Rous or 
Lord Henry Ben ti nek. 

It is, of course, a pure matter of speculation as to how 
far Mr. Clay would have given his adherence to the 
recent innovations in the game. It is a fact, however, 
that he admitted his adhesion to the lead from the 
^' intermediate sequence," and even looked with favor on 



170 WHIST SKETCHES. 

the lead from the penultiaiate card, and as these leads 
were the first step in the direction of the present system 
of leading, it is quite possible that were he here now, we 
should find him leading the " card of uniformity " with 
the same conscientiousness as the most faithful adherent 
of Mr. Trist. 



XV. 
AMERICAN LEADS. 

The System Adopted by the Congress — Formulated by 
^^ Cavendish ^^ in his 19th Edition — The Differences in 
the ^'Cavendish ^^ and the " G, W. P." Leads Pointed 
Out, 

*HE First American Whist Congress adopted 
^' Cavendish's^^ leads as the system that would rule 
in the interplay of League clubs. A brief of the latest 
formulation by Cavendish is therefore relevant. We 
give this, and point out the raaterial differences between 
it and G. W. P.'s leads. 

The trend of modern whist in the matter of leads 
from high card combinations is in the direction of 
common sense simplification. Under "Appendix C," 
19th edition, Cavendish gives the following simple 
scheme, in which all duality of inference is practically 
eliminated : 

ACE LEADS. 

Ace, led originally, shows five or more; or. 

Ace, queen, knave, four or more in suit. 

The second lead marks the possible combinations. 

KING LEADS. 

King, led originally, shows exactly four in suit, and 



172 WHIST SKETCHES. 

either ace or queen, or both — second lead determining. 

QUEEN LEADS. 

Queen, led originally, shows either — 
Ace, king, queen — more than four in suit ; 
King, queen — more than four in suit, or, 
QueeO, knave ten — four or more in suit. 

KNAVE LEADS. 

Knave, led originallv, shows more than four in suit, 
and marks either — 

Ace, king, queen, knave— and one or more, or. 
King, queen, knave — and two or more. 

THE TEN. 

Ten, led originally, marks the single combination — 
King, knave, ten — and any one or more — the nine 
included. 

NINE LEADS. 

This card is led from two combinations only, and 
marks exactly four cards — 
Ace, queen, ten, nine, or. 
Ace, knave, ten, nine. 

"G. TF. P.'^iB ''American Whist Illustrated/ ' 

Differs from the above system of leading in the follow- 
ing particulars : 

LEADING ACE — ALSO FROM 

Ace, queen, ten, nine. 
Ace, knave, ten, nine. 



WHIST SKETCHES. 173 

QUEEN FROM 

Queen, knave, and two below the seven. 
Queen, knave, nine, and two or more. 

KNAVE FROM 

Knave, ten, nine, and one or more. 
Knave, ten, and two small. 

THE TEN 

Is treated by *' G. W. P." in the following manner: 
Leading Ten from 

Ace, king, queen, knave, ten, — only. 
King, queen, knave, ten, — and one or more. 
King, knave, ten, — and one or more. 

THE NINE 

Is treated by " G. W. P.'^ as a high card, and is led 
from a single combination — 

King, knave, nine, — with or without others (excepting 
ace and queen). 

The above are the material differences between the 
two systems of leading. 



WHIST OUTFITS. 



PLAYING CARDS. 

The officers of the League at their September sitting 
acted on the subject of official playing cards for the 
League clubs, and decided upon those manufactured by 
the National Card Company, of Indianapolis, on account 
of their superior quality, desirable form, and reasonable 
price. The advantages in the regards named were con- 
sidered to surpass the make of other manufacturers 
submitted, hence their adoption. In form they are of 
the same length as the conventional old sized card, but 
one fourth of an inch narrower, or 2Jx3J inches, and 
they are much more convenient to hold in full handed 
games like whist. Their quality is shown by their 
superior finish and slip. Clubs and players can form a 
better idea of them by sending to the Company for 
samples. New dies and special designs have been made 
for the League Cards, and they are as distinctive as they 
are handsome. 

DUPLICATE TRAYS. 

" Kalamazoo " is the terra that single table duplicate 
whist is drifting into. The Kalamazoo Trays have 
certainly been boon enough to players to deserve that 
synonym. Formerly, for duplicate, it consumed as nuich 
time to preserve the hands intact as it did to play them. 
By their use time can be saved over straight-away whist, 
by dealing the cards prior to a sitting, and hands can be 



WHIST SKETCHES. 175 

preserved as played to take the record of play, if desired. 
The two cited advanta2:es of the travs will be understood 
by the whist [\layer, and they mean a great deal to him. 

CARD COUNTERS. 

Lack of conspicuousness is the prevailing defect of 
most Card Counters. It is necessary with them to ask 
the opponents score. The Deschapelles counters were 
invented to obviate all objections of this character. 
They are entirely simple, and the score of both sides is 
always visible and conspicuous, and all cause of disturb- 
ance to the game, to learn the score, is by their use 
removed. We have used them since their discovery, and 
have found them the ideal counters for whist, and games 
of points similar to whist. Clubs and families who use 
these counters want no others. If not found at the 
stationers, apply to Willard & Quincy, the manufacturers, 
85 to 91 Essex Street, Boston. 

WHIST JOURNAL. 

" Whist," the monthly journal published in Milwau- 
kee, is one of the outgrowths of the Congress, of per- 
manent interest to the whist world. Its half-year of 
existence demonstrates that there is room for such a 
journal, and in that time it has established itself. Whist 
experts and authorities have already used it to a consid- 
erable extent as a medium in which to discuss subjects 
and mooted points pertaining to the game, and it will be 
more used by them as a means for interchange of views 
on points on which a difference of opinion exists. Every 



176 WHIST SKETCHES. 

one at all interested in the game will find the journal a 
welcome monthly visitor. 

TEXT BOOKS. 

All text books on whist can be had of Brentano, 
New York, Chicago, Washington. Houghton, Mifflin 
& Co. are the publishers of '* G. W. P.'s" text book, 
"American Whist Illustrated," and "Whist in Dia- 
grams." 

The official report of the proceedings of The First 
American Whist Congress has been published in hand- 
some octavo book form by the officers of The American 
Whist League. In addition to the valuable matter it 
contains, it has in whist type diagrams the full play and 
overplay of a series of hands after the Orndorff system 
of duplicate, in a contest between eight experts. This 
in itself is an interesting study for whist players. The 
book is not on sale in the regular channels, but can be 
had by mailing $1.00 to Eugene S. Elliot, the President 
of the League, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. 



G. 
W 



AMERICAN WHIST 
ILLUSTRATED. 

Sixth Edition. $1.75. 

WHIST IN DIAGRAMS. 

' Just Published. $1.25. 

For sale by all booksellers. 



P 



HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & CO., 

• BOSTON. 



lllllilllMlllillllllllllilillllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllKlllilllllllllllllllllt 



WHIST. 



^A^e have al^vays in stock a com- 
plete line of books on ^A/^HIST ; also, 
WHIST COUNTERS, CARDS of 
foreign and domestic make, WHIST BOXES, SCORE 
BOOKS, etc Full information sent upon application. 

Send for FOSTER'S WHIST MANUAL, endorsed by lead- 
ing authorities; cloth, illustrated, $ I .OO. 

An Encyclopedia of the OAME of WHIST, by Sir NA^illi^m 
Cusack-Smith, Bart., 16 mo., cloth, $.7S ; just published. 

:^:| FOSTER'S SELF-PLAYING CARDS. 

^ A " The cleverest and most practical iuvention for 

^ ' ^1 teaching good Whist." 



Price 75 Cents a Pack. All Stationers. 

Or mailed by BRENTANO, 5 Union Square, New York, 



AMERICAN AGENTS FOR 



"Cavendish's" Vv/^orks, "Whist Developments," "Cavendish 

on Whist," — 19th edition, "American Leads 

Simplified." 

DRENTANO'S, New York, Chicago, Washington, 



I 

WHIST 

A MONTHLY JOURNAL DEVOTED TO THE INTERESTS 

OF THE GAME. 

THE ONLY JOURNAL DEVOTED EXCLUSIVELY TO WHIST. 



The Official Source of Communication and Discussion beiiveen 

WJiist Players and Whisi Clubs, upon all points 

Pertaining to the Game. 



CA88IUS M. PAINE, - EDITOR. 



TERMS TO SUBSCRIBERS: 
One Year, $i.oo. - Single Copies, lo Cents. 



ADDRESS : 

THE WHIST PUBLISHING CO., 

MILWAUKEE, WIS. 



THIE 



DE8GHAPELLE8 COUNTERS 



PATENTED SEPT. 23, 1890. 



The score can be readily seen at any time without 
interruption of the g-ame. 

Made in Black and White Celluloid, and endorsed by 
representative Whist players. 



THE cleverest invention yet hit upon for Whist Counters or 
for games of cards is ' Ieschapelles Counters," patented 
one year ago, and now just on the market. They consist of four 
black and white Celluloid discs, each about the diameter of a 
silver quarter of a dollar, strung upon a wire, with concealed 
spring adjustment, so that the discs are easily reversible. They 
are compact, portable, simple markers, and so conspicuous that 
the score can be readily seen at any time without interruption of 
the game. It is the ideal marker of all markers yet invented and 
recommends itself to all Whist players on sight, and none of 
them should be without a set. If not found at the Stationers, it 
can be had by mailing $1 to 

WILLARD & QUINCY, 

85 TO 91 ESSEX STREET, BOSTON, MASS. 
Ji^ Markers with Ivory Centers, $1.25. 



DUPLICATE WHIST 



TRAYS. 

(PATENTED.) 




FACE OF TRAY. 

Kalamazoo method. 



Extreme Simplicity of Detail. The Best System 
Known for Playing the Duplicate Game. 

THERE IS NO RE-SORTING OF DEALS. 

The game proceeds faster than regular Whist, as there is no delay 
on the return play of the hands. 

There is no chance ot misplacing the cards. 

Send for complete rules, description and price list to 

IHI^ING BROS. & EYERARD, ^Manufacturers, 
KAL.AMAZOO, MICH. 



DUPLICATE 



V/HIST TRAYS 



(PATENTED.) 







^AV 




BACK OF TRAY. 



KALAMAZOO METHOD. 



Price List, Rules and Instructions Sent Free of 
Charge. Address 

Il]lii^o Bros. ^ EVerard, 

KALAMAZOO, MICH. 



4®='The National Playing Cards Iiave been adopted by the American 
Whist League. 

THE NATIONAL CARD CO., 

MANUFACTURERS OF 

S^psrior piayii^g G^^rds, 

Beg to call the attention of Whist Players generally to their New Size 
Playing Cards, 234x3)^ inches (one quarter inch narrower than standard 
size). 4®^A11 tuck boxes provided with Murray's Patented Finger Recess. 






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NATIONAL WHIST, (NEW.) 
Endorsed by all Leading Whist Players. Can be had at all Dealers. 

TTiE I^J^TIOIsT^Xj C.A.I^ID CO., 

N. y. Office, 221-227 Ctojai ^reei. I N Dl ANAPOLIS, I N D. 



OUR CORRECT SIZE WHIST PLAYING CARDS. 

(2 1-4 X 3 1-2 INCHES.) 

Wr\ 17FI lUfUIQT Angel, Penaissance, Mosquito backs, etc. Sealed, 

NU. HO n 11 lul .wrapped and put up in a beautiful cloth card case. 

Court Cardis in six colors. 

Kin Mill TCMMIQ Specially prepared stock. New and beautiful de- 

IxU. Itt I LliMiU.signs, printed in different colors. Wrapped, sealed 

and put up in appropriate tuck box. 

Mfl 1 DI inil A perfect gem. Most elaborate playing card made. 

INU. 1 D1 J UU. Illuminated backs in six colors and gold. All gold edges. 

Each pack either in imported cloth or leather case, stamped in gold. 









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OUR cards should be on sale at all dealers. If not readily obtained in j'our 
section, we will mail sample pack, postage paid, on receipt of price : 
No 144 TENNIS, per pack. 30c. ; No. 145 TENNIS, gilt edged, per pack, 
4nc. ; No. 175 WHIST, cloth case, 50c. ; No. 176 WHIST, gilt edged, 6Uc. ; 
No. 1 BIJOU, imported cloth case, gilt edged, 81.00 ; No. 1 BIJOU, leather 
case, gilt edged, §1.35. Also put up two packs in a case. 

THE NATIONAL CARD CO., 



N. Y. Office, 221-227 Canal Street. 



INDIANAPOLIS, IND. 



LEHIGH VALLEY RAILROAD 

THE GREAT SCENIC ROUTE 



THROUGH 



^ir^epica's Woi^derlai^d. 



THE POPULAR LINE BETWEEN 



Buffalo, Niagara Falls, New York, Phila- 
delphia, and all points East, West 
North and South. 



ANTHRACJTE COAL USED EXCLUSIVELY. STONE BALLAST. 

Pullman Palace Buffet Cars and Chair Cars on all Through Trains. 



CITY TICKET OFFICES : 

NEW YORK:— Genkeal Eastern Office, 235 Broadway ; 
Depot, foot of Courtlandt Street; Depot, foot of Desbrosses 
Street, and all principal Pennsylvania Railroad Ticket OflBces. 

PHILADELPHIA:— 836 Chestnut Street; Philadelphia & Read- 
ing Depots, Ninth and Green and Third and Berks Streets. 

BUFFALO : — Corner of Main and Seneca Streets. 

£. B. BYINGTON, Gen. Pas. Agt, 

South Bethlehem, Fa. 



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